WASHINGTON - Federal regulators unanimously agreed Monday to allow the
nation's two biggest phone companies, SBC Communications Inc. and
Verizon Communications Inc., to take over the two leading long-distance
providers.
But the Federal Communications Commission also prodded the companies
into accepting some temporary price freezes, as well as safeguards to
prevent them from gaining too much control over Internet service.
The FCC's approval was the last major potential impediment to SBC's
purchase of AT&T Corp. for $16 billion and Verizon's acquisition of
MCI Inc. for $8.44 billion.
As a merged company, Verizon and MCI together will have annual
revenues exceeding $90 billion. Together, SBC and AT&T will have
revenues of more than $70 billion, and the takeovers will extend both
companies' access to the lucrative market for business customers.
Each of the new companies will be vastly larger than their
competitors, including Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., with revenue of
$20 billion in 2004, and Reston, Va.-based Sprint Nextel Corp., with
revenues of $41 billion.
Both SBC -- which will adopt the AT&T name once the transaction is
final -- and Verizon plan to compete directly with cable companies to
deliver video services.
By allowing the transactions, the FCC is helping "create strong global
carriers that will vigorously compete" to provide voice, data and
video services, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said.
Still, some consumer advocates said regulators should have gone further.
"The commission has failed to ensure that consumers will receive
meaningful choices at fair prices," Gene Kimmelman, senior director of
public policy for Consumers Union, said in a statement.
The concessions demanded by the FCC include:
... The telecom companies cannot force consumers to take local phone
service if they want only high-speed Internet access. Many customers
with cell phones don't want to pay for old-fashioned phone service;
they just want digital subscriber lines (DSL) for their computers.
... For two years, the companies must provide "neutral" Internet
service by not restricting consumers' access to rivals' Web sites and
software.
... For 30 months, they must freeze the rates they charge existing
wholesale customers.
Last week, the Justice Department signed off on both transactions
after demanding only that SBC and New York-based Verizon divest some
fiber-optic network facilities they control.
Martin, a Republican, had not wanted any additional concessions.
But because the five-member FCC has one vacant seat, it is split
evenly between two Republicans, Martin and Kathleen Abernathy, and two
Democrats, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.
Copps and Adelstein pushed so hard for concessions that the vote,
originally scheduled for Friday, was delayed until Monday. Marathon
negotiations over the weekend concluded with both sides saying they
were disappointed, but willing to live with the results.
"I believe the affected markets would remain vibrantly competitive
absent these conditions," Martin said. However, SBC and Verizon were
willing to accept the concessions because of "their desire to move
forward," he said.
After the FCC vote, San Antonio-based SBC said it can accept the
"limited conditions that will still allow the combined company to
realize the benefits of the merger."
Copps said the compromise "falls far short of ideal," but would at
least help to "protect against injurious consequences."
Chris Putala, executive vice president of Atlanta-based EarthLink
Inc., an Internet service provider, said that while they might not be
perfect, the concessions were "certainly positive news."
EarthLink fears that if SBC and Verizon were to require that DSL and
local phone service be sold together, then customers would have less
incentive to use EarthLink, with its option to make calls using the
technology known as voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP.
Consumer advocate Kimmelman said the problem is that the FCC is not
imposing the concessions across the entire industry.
"The absence of similar enforcement mechanisms for other telephone and
cable companies means that Internet service providers and applications
developers can be undermined" by the powerful telecom giants, he said.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.
Also see http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html
Also see http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/TDNewsradio.html
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is _good_ to see the FCC put this
clamp on SBC where people do not have to accept their phone service
in order to purchase their DSL. I wonder how how long it will take
for SBC to comply with this new requirement. PAT]
Associated Press News Wire (ap@telecom-digest.org)