The Bells have successfully sought changes to the FCC's rules to protect their investment in the equipment necessary to provide high-speed Internet service. Under these rules, Bell company competitors are very limited in their ability to lease or resell Bell facilities to offer high-speed services. This demonstrates that the RBOCs have margins that are more than sufficient to allow for resale of advanced services to competitors. Such resale would allow quicker and broader deployment of high-speed services. The Bell claim that relief is necessary to accomplish this goal is untrue.
Competition is the right way to deliver new services and lower prices to consumers.
What is needed is not a rewrite of the Act, but rather the will to enforce its provisions. The Bells need to be told that implementation of the Act's market-opening requirements is not optional.