I know that in this Second Gilded Age, $50 billion may not sound like a lot of money.
But that is apparently what the Bells have squandered in Universal Service Fund payments over the last two decades.
And the Stevens bill now making its way through the Senate would increase these taxes.
You might call Stevens’ plan an Ultra-Slim Fast Plan for the U.S. economy, as in Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire.
As Daniel Berninger wrote recently, what’s preventing universal service isn’t a lack of money, but a lack of competition. When you have a Mexican Plan for telecommunications, you’re enriching the few and impoverishing everyone else.
This has to change if we’re to make progress.
The right plan is very simple:
- End the USF tax.
- End the Bells’ monopoly.
- Ensure competition for broadband at ever-higher speeds.
And since it’s now certain the Republican Congress is going in the
opposite direction on this, anyone who believes in the Internet needs
to vote Democratic.
Telecom/Cable/Wireless “Competition” as it is normally thought of, that is competition between unregulated providers (e.g., telco,cable,power, others), is NOT the answer to achieve Universal Broadband & FTTH service. A single “regulated” & nationwide franchised “monopoly”, is required to provide this universal access, non-discriminatory interconnection, and must-carry “common carrier” services, for a “reasonable” rate of return.
The competition that is required is to get these “unregulated monopolies” to COMPETE to win the franchise to become the country’s “single”, but regulated, MONOPOLY with “guarantees”. See the Kingsbury Commitment made by AT&T in a deal with the Justice Department at the end of the last Guilded Age to guarantee Universal & fair telephone common carrier service in the US.
To continue to beat the “Competition Drum” is to play into the Bell lobbyists’ hands. As long as we drink that Kool-Aid, they can keep their cash cow monopolies AND avoid true & fair regulation. Can you remember local and state PUCs or have we collectively forgotten this painful history?
I’ll vote for the Party that demands that we CREATE a “single private” nationwide local & fed regulated MONOPOLY company with goals and guarantees. Would you invest in the “winner” of that competition? I would, and so will many many others. It would be the IPO of the next century.
However, there is a downside for the current incumbent Telco/Cable/Broadcast CEOs. Their compensation would also regulated. Unlike today’s CEOs (industry leaders/moguls/fat cats), the Bell System executives of the past were only well compensated employees NOT in control of a co-conspiring boardroom.
Telecom/Cable/Wireless “Competition” as it is normally thought of, that is competition between unregulated providers (e.g., telco,cable,power, others), is NOT the answer to achieve Universal Broadband & FTTH service. A single “regulated” & nationwide franchised “monopoly”, is required to provide this universal access, non-discriminatory interconnection, and must-carry “common carrier” services, for a “reasonable” rate of return.
The competition that is required is to get these “unregulated monopolies” to COMPETE to win the franchise to become the country’s “single”, but regulated, MONOPOLY with “guarantees”. See the Kingsbury Commitment made by AT&T in a deal with the Justice Department at the end of the last Guilded Age to guarantee Universal & fair telephone common carrier service in the US.
To continue to beat the “Competition Drum” is to play into the Bell lobbyists’ hands. As long as we drink that Kool-Aid, they can keep their cash cow monopolies AND avoid true & fair regulation. Can you remember local and state PUCs or have we collectively forgotten this painful history?
I’ll vote for the Party that demands that we CREATE a “single private” nationwide local & fed regulated MONOPOLY company with goals and guarantees. Would you invest in the “winner” of that competition? I would, and so will many many others. It would be the IPO of the next century.
However, there is a downside for the current incumbent Telco/Cable/Broadcast CEOs. Their compensation would also regulated. Unlike today’s CEOs (industry leaders/moguls/fat cats), the Bell System executives of the past were only well compensated employees NOT in control of a co-conspiring boardroom.
The solution is very simple — forced separation of retail and wholesale. If you own the physical network you can only be a wholesaler. If you are a retailer you cannot own a network. Simple.
The solution is very simple — forced separation of retail and wholesale. If you own the physical network you can only be a wholesaler. If you are a retailer you cannot own a network. Simple.
Yes, it was called the separation of “content” from “conduit”.
Yes, it was called the separation of “content” from “conduit”.
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