Deterrence is a reason for building prisons, not opening the marketplace. What has gotten mired in litigation is the roadmap to progressive deregulation. Creating immediate alternatives to incumbent LEC services through purchases of unbundled facilities would have allowed prompt retail deregulation and interstate access deregulation. And we may have lost the chance to step outside the archaic model of telecommunications services regulation where we classify all costs and separate them between jurisdictions. The other key to competition is subsidy reform.
Universal service is the law of the land.
Now comes the hard truth. The vast bulk of universal service support today is generated and spent within the boundaries of each state. This means that the real key to subsidy reform is state , rather than federal action. But the bulk of subsidies will continue to be raised and distributed within the boundaries of any single state. And unless states act promptly to reform intrastate implicit subsidies, both incumbents and new entrants will be hobbled competitively.