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From: corwin@apple.com (Paul Frommeyer)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
Message-ID: <12352@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 19 Sep 90 17:59:39 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 660, Message 1 of 10


[various complaints about divestiture from our Moderator]

[various praises of divestiture and complaints about our Moderator]

My .02, for what it's worth:

I'm afraid my views on divestiture parallel those of our esteemed
Moderator.  I think the divestiture thing looked good on paper, but
has proven to be less than great in practice.

The whole intent of divestiture, as I remember it from Judge Greene,
was to break up the AT&T monopoly. This may have succeeded in part
with the long distance carriers; it certainly went nowhere with the
local telco, which at least for me is the area that affects my phone
service the most.

I want to have a choice of subscriber loop carriers; If I don't like
Pac Bell, I want to be able to get dial tone from Bob's Fone Company
if I so choose.  Until that free market choice exists, the One Big
Monopoly of AT&T has simply been replaced with Several Small
Monopolies.

If phone service is in fact a "public utility", then why break up AT&T
in the first place? If it is not, and should simply be yet another
service provided in a free market economy, then why do the RBOC's
still have a monopoly on phone service?

A lot of good has come of divestiture, but I think even more good
would arise if our friends in Congress and the FCC would dispense with
what I see as half-measures aimed at perpetuating the monopoly of the
local telco. The place divestiture would benefit subscribers most is
at the level of the local telco, not only through market-driven
pricing, but also through market-driven services, such as data and
video, to name two.

Anticipating complaints about an "unfair advantage" had by the RBOCs
in the event of their deregulation, I raise a point made in a previous
posting in the Digest, namely that there is ready-made competition for
the telcos in the form of the local cable television company.

Of course, that would require that the CATV carriers not be
monopolies...!

OK, now you can all flame away! :-)


Paul "Corwin" Frommeyer    Network Sorcerer and Telecomm Hacker
   Apple Computer Incorporated   Internet: corwin@apple.com
      Disclaimer: "My opinion, not Apple's","No comment"