When Regulation = Competition
from the rethinking-telecom-regulation dept
It’s almost amusing to read all the various articles arguing about telecom regulation or deregulation these days. No matter which side they argue, they all same the same thing. That whichever view they support will help build a competitive market in the long run. It seems that many state governments have taken the position that by regulating the Baby Bells, they help increase competition, by allowing others to step in on their monopolized networks at cost. The Baby Bells, of course, hate this – because they’re losing revenue to customers who are using their network anyway, but who are paying fees to their competition. The federal government, on the other hand, thinks that deregulating the telecom market will increase competition, but in a broader way. Instead of focusing in on plain old telephone service, they say through deregulation, cable, satellite and other companies can come in and compete in the same market to offer communications services.
