In ages of change affecting many, many must change to effect a new age. We should be writing, shoulder to shoulder, with free-flowing ideas exchanged in a sincere and enthusiastic spirit. If the first step in solving any problem is recognition that a problem exists, then we should already be at the second step, which is determining why the problem exists. The easy target for blame is competition.
Easy targets are often the wrong ones, however, and such is the case here.
To be sure, heightened levels of competition in recent years have not facilitated the solidarity and cooperation we clearly need to move the communications industry forward at the optimal pace. In some instances, a by-product of competition admittedly has been the opposite phenomenon. It has not, this writer respectfully submits, caused the lack of accordance that currently impedes our collective progress. More likely, the impediment has been the result of the manner in which regulatory proceedings have recently come to be handled, beyond the initial reactions of docket participants and much nearer the point where actual decisions are reached. Furthermore, in cases where Commission personnel sensed that a party might not have told the entire story regarding what it could and could not live with in the forthcoming order, they exercised sound judgment and drew their own conclusions with almost uncanny accuracy.