Such enforcement is and must remain the key ingredient in any regulatory framework dedicated to opening up local markets and promoting competitive alternatives. Pricing, in particular, is extremely important. It is the only way to prevent RBOCs from collecting monopoly rents. Likewise, provisioning, OSS, and collocation are all vital to achieving the goal of opening local markets. As an aside, inter-carrier compensation is a critical problem that needs to be addressed.
Reciprocal compensation is only one of several inter-carrier compensation issues.
It should be resolved separately. In sum, the inter-LATA restrictions of the Act continue to be the strongest incentives that we currently have to encourage the Bells to provide competitive access to their networks. I thought that this fight would be over by now. I have come to recognize that the 96 Act cannot be a panacea for every kind of anti-competitive problem that arises. We must consider whether the Act s market-opening provisions and our rules to implement them are, by themselves, sufficient to open up markets quickly and whether they can prevent the stalling that hurts competitors both operationally and financially.