[Download] "Will Access Regulation Work? (The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective)" by Federal Communications Law Journal ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details

Title: Will Access Regulation Work? (The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective)
Author : Federal Communications Law Journal
Release Date : January 01, 2008
Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
Pages : * pages
Size : 259 KB

Description

The premise of this panel is that the FCC is transitioning from a rate regulation regime to an access regime. A rate regulation regime gives all customers full access to network facilities (common carrier) at regulated rates--generally, rate base rate of return regulation. An access regime is one in which all competitors are given full access to incumbents' networks, with little or no retail rate regulation, thereby allowing competition (over incumbents' networks) to discipline the market. Is this a good idea? Is it likely to work? What is the evidence for this? At the core of this transition is the idea that incumbent monopolies control bottleneck facilities, such as local loops or cable IP channels, (1) which make facilities-based competitive entry difficult, at least in the short run. Such control will almost surely lead to well-known inefficiencies of monopoly. Can public policy help? Traditionally, regulatory agencies were established (e.g., telephone, airlines, trucking, electric power) that tightly regulated retail prices and entry, often establishing social objectives that were incompatible with competitive markets. For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, rate base rate of return regulation was perceived as a necessary government intervention to solve the natural monopoly/essential facilities problem and improve social welfare.