What Does The FCC Telecom Ruling Mean?

Ramblings

from the as-if-anyone-knows dept

Okay, clearly, there’s some disagreement over what the latest FCC ruling concerning telecom regulation means. As predicted, you can find plenty of people giving their opinions on it. What’s funny, though, is that you could think you were reading about completely different rulings based on some of the different opinions. For example, this article claims that the ruling is a boost for Qwest. If that’s true, why does this article claim the deal is a blow to Qwest? It’s hard to believe they’re talking about the same deal. Of course, if anyone had bothered to ask Qwest, they said they were disappointed by the ruling, so it sounds like the first Qwest story was barking up the wrong tree. Plenty of people put out press releases about the deal also. For example, was it a defeat for consumers or a victory for competition? Dan Gillmor doesn’t seem to think it’s a victory for competition – he’s decided it’s a blow to the competitive marketplace. The decision seems like something of a Schrodinger’s Cat of regulation. If you look at it thinking it’s good, you’ll find some reason why it’s bad – and vice versa. Different reporters felt that it was a “mixed victory”, a “split decision” or that it just sent “mixed messages”. I’ll say. But, as with just about any “compromise” solution (or, as this article points out, the “mother of all compromises”), the one thing you can be sure of is that, basically, no one is happy.