{"id":3399,"date":"2005-06-18T22:13:40","date_gmt":"2005-06-18T22:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/e-commerce\/telecom-competition.html"},"modified":"2005-06-18T22:13:40","modified_gmt":"2005-06-18T22:13:40","slug":"telecom-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/voip\/telecom-competition.html","title":{"rendered":"Telecom Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><font size=\"2\">I\u00a0received this e-mail this week from Consumer&#8217;s Union and agree that we are seeing too many mega-mergers in telecom. The telecom industry is turning into a battle between those who want to innovate against those that want to regulate. VoIP has revolutionized telecom and we need to allow this revolution to continue. Allowing a few companies to own all the pipes to all the homes is the worst thing we can to foster innovation and competition. Please forward this entry to others and let them know a telecom market free from competition is likely free of innovation as well.<\/p>\n<p \/><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><shapetype id=\"_x0000_t75\" stroked=\"f\" filled=\"f\" path=\"m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe\" o:preferrelative=\"t\" o:spt=\"75\" coordsize=\"21600,21600\"><stroke joinstyle=\"miter\" \/><formulas><f eqn=\"if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0\" \/><f eqn=\"sum @0 1 0\" \/><f eqn=\"sum 0 0 @1\" \/><f eqn=\"prod @2 1 2\" \/><f eqn=\"prod @3 21600 pixelWidth\" \/><f eqn=\"prod @3 21600 pixelHeight\" \/><f eqn=\"sum @0 0 1\" \/><f eqn=\"prod @6 1 2\" \/><f eqn=\"prod @7 21600 pixelWidth\" \/><f eqn=\"sum @8 21600 0\" \/><f eqn=\"prod @7 21600 pixelHeight\" \/><f eqn=\"sum @10 21600 0\" \/><\/formulas><path o:connecttype=\"rect\" gradientshapeok=\"t\" o:extrusionok=\"f\" \/><lock aspectratio=\"t\" v:ext=\"edit\" \/><\/shapetype><\/p>\n<p \/><\/span><\/p>\n<table class=\"MsoNormalTable\" style=\"mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes\">\n<td style=\"BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; WIDTH: 600pt; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent\" width=\"800\">\n<table class=\"MsoNormalTable\" style=\"WIDTH: 350pt; mso-cellspacing: 3.0pt; mso-table-lspace: 2.25pt; mso-table-rspace: 2.25pt; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-left: left; mso-padding-alt: 3.0pt 3.0pt 3.0pt 3.0pt\" cellspacing=\"4\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"467\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes\">\n<td style=\"BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8; PADDING-RIGHT: 3pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; PADDING-LEFT: 3pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3pt; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; PADDING-TOP: 3pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent\" valign=\"top\">\n<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><font size=\"2\">Dear Rich,<\/p>\n<p \/><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><font size=\"2\">This year, telephone giants SBC\u00a0(formerly <place w:st=\"on\">Southwestern Bell<\/place>) and AT&amp;T announced their merger. Shortly thereafter, Verizon announced that it would combine with the huge long distance company, MCI. Bigger is not better! If these mergers are approved, <strong>the two new companies created would control 90% of the home phone market in most states,<\/strong> and could block competitors from offering new and cheaper services.<\/p>\n<p \/><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><a title=\"http:\/\/cu.convio.net\/site\/R?i=ZbhP3mxl2AXMym-o6bSGLQ..\" href=\"http:\/\/cu.convio.net\/site\/R?i=ZbhP3mxl2AXMym-o6bSGLQ..\"><strong><font size=\"2\">Take action now to let the Federal Communications Commission know you demand competition for your cell phone, traditional phone or Internet dollar.<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><font size=\"2\">Years ago, there was only one phone company. The federal government stepped in to break up the monopoly so competition could drive down phone prices. When competitors got into the long distance business,\u00a0prices came down. But, if the proposed mergers of phone giants of SBC\/AT&amp;T and Verizon\/MCI are allowed to go through,\u00a0we will soon find ourselves with\u00a0few competitive options when our bills go up.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p \/><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><font size=\"2\">If you are\u00a0frustrated with endless fees, confusing bills,\u00a0and poor customer service, you\u00a0want more competition, not less.\u00a0SBC and Verizon already have an anti-competitive track record. The new giants would be even better positioned to block competitors from offering new and cheaper services, including Internet based services.<\/p>\n<p \/><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><a title=\"http:\/\/cu.convio.net\/site\/R?i=KPogpTpFvEbJytB_kCS-kg..\" href=\"http:\/\/cu.convio.net\/site\/R?i=KPogpTpFvEbJytB_kCS-kg..\"><strong><font size=\"2\">Tell the FCC to\u00a0stop these mega-mergers.<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: \"Times New Roman\"\"><font size=\"2\">And please, tell your friends and family because skyrocketing phone and Internet\u00a0prices affect us all. Add their voices to yours!\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Sincerely,<br \/>Morgan Jindrich<br \/>HearUsNow.org<br \/>A project of Consumers Union<br \/>1666 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 310<br \/>Washington, DC 20009-1039<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black\"><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"><\/p>\n<p \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u00a0received this e-mail this week from Consumer&#8217;s Union and agree that we are seeing too many mega-mergers in telecom. The telecom industry is turning into a battle between those who want to innovate against those that want to regulate. VoIP has revolutionized telecom and we need to allow this revolution to continue. Allowing a few<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}