Sirbu Predicts Consumers May See Fewer Price Breaks Under FCC Ruling
January 13, 2003
Carnegie Mellon University's Marvin Sirbu says a proposed plan by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to stop making local phone companies rent their networks to their competitors at cheap rates could reverse the increasing competition for customers that had begun to push prices down.
Sirbu, Professor of EPP, ECE, and GSIA, said the proposed plan could derail the growing competition for local phone service without offering a workable alternative.
"Essentially the plan would undo the FCC's seven-year-old rules intended to help competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and long-distance companies compete with the Bells, instead forcing them to pay higher prices to rent network access or buy more of their own equipment. And it would continue to allow the Bells to compete on the long-distance companies' home ground, where they have made significant inroads," Sirbu said.
