Re: WSJ.com - FCC Plan Could Raise Residential Phone Fees

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Robert Atkinson <rca53 () columbia edu>
Date: October 15, 2008 8:49:07 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] WSJ.com - FCC Plan Could Raise Residential Phone Fees

Dave,

Reducing rural carriers' access charges revenues may encourage the rapid
consolidation of that sector--the only part of the telecom industry  
that has
not been consolidated in the past decade. The rural industry seems  
ripe for
consolidation: the historic subsidies to rural companies have
unintentionally but quite logically subsidized an inefficient industry
structure.  If a thousand small, inefficient telcos could be  
consolidated
into a few relatively efficient regional operations, the need for the
subsidies would decline substantially.

The regional consolidation doesn't have to mean acquisition by Verizon  
or
AT&T.  It could be accomplished by each rural telco contributing its  
assets
into a new regional company and taking a proportionate ownership share  
of
the new company. Then let the management of the new company  
rationalize the
overall infrastructure and overhead.  The new company could be IPO'd  
when
the P&L justified it so that the owners of the currently illiquid rural
telcos who have a way to monetize their holdings.

Bob

--
Come to CITI's 25th anniversary celebration,
The International Summit on Communication & Media:
October 30, Gala Dinner
October 31, Conference
The Next Generation of Communication -
The Dawning of the Ultra-Broadband Era
For more information go to:
http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/citi/events/summit2008

Robert C. Atkinson
Director of Policy Research
Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI)
http://www.citi.columbia.edu

office: 212-854-7576
mobile: 908-447-4201

E-mail: rca53 () columbia edu
alt: bob () robertcatkinson com





On 10/15/08 5:52 AM, "David Farber" <dave () farber net> wrote:

>  WSJ.com - FCC Plan Could Raise Residential Phone Fees* This article
> will be available to non-subscribers of the Online Journal for up to
> seven days after it is e-mailed.
>
>
> http://online.wsj.com/wsjgate?subURI=%2Farticle%2FSB122403282731234979-email.h
> tml&nonsubURI=%2Farticle_email%2FSB122403282731234979- 
> lMyQjAxMDI4MjE0NTAxMzUyW
> j.html
>
>
>
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