From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 22


Telecom
Experts See Internet Telephony As Start Of Tech Wave
by Drew Clark

CHICAGO -- Internet telephony is only the beginning of the disruptive forces that the next new technology -- video over the Internet -- is bringing to the telecommunications sector, industry executives said Monday.
Telecommunications companies say they are embracing technologies that would allow them to finally compete with the cable industry for subscription-based television programming. They say that could mean upsetting longstanding assumptions about the way pay television is offered.
"There has been a lot of discussion of the disruptive influence of [Internet telephony]," Walter McCormick, CEO of the U.S. Telecommunications Association (USTA), said of the debate among the traditional telecom carriers that his group represents.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040622.htm#4
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)


From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 22

Telecom
State Regulators Urge FCC Stand On Internet Telephony
by Drew Clark

CHICAGO -- Many state regulators and legislators are being driven by an irrational fear of Internet telephone services, and the FCC must pre-empt states from tampering with such voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP), two state regulators said Tuesday.
Speaking on a panel at the Supercomm conference here about the policy implications of regulating Internet-based services like VoIP, members of the California and Florida public-utilities commissions said such fear is driving many of their colleagues to assert jurisdiction over the Internet when they have none.
"When faced with the unknown, the regulator has survival instincts that kick in," said Susan Kennedy, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission. "They preserve jurisdiction first and ask questions later." Florida Public Service Commission member Charles Davidson agreed.

[more...]


http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040622.htm#5
Telecom
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)


From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 22

SBC Chief Expects New Market Structure, Consolidation
by Drew Clark

CHICAGO -- The communications industry is evolving toward a marketplace structure with a few large-scale "super carriers" that will dominate but remain challenged by competition from niche telecommunications players, SBC Communications CEO Edward Whitacre said Tuesday.
In an optimistic keynote speech at the Supercomm conference here, Whitacre praised the industry-wide consolidation, which he called long overdue. The need for a combined package of voice, video and high-speed data services makes the transformation inevitable, he said.
"The sooner our industry evolves, the better for our customers and for you and I," he said.
But the three-year telecom recession and a series of regulatory decisions unfavorable to regional Bell telecom firms slowed the convergence, Whitacre said.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040622.htm#6
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 21

Intellectual Property
Senate Aides Defend Draft Copyright Measure
by Drew Clark

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is considering legislation to dramatically reshape how copyright law has emerged in the 20 years since the Betamax videocassette recorder was legalized.
The one-page draft legislation, which has circulated online, states, "Whoever intentionally induces a violation [of copyright law] shall be liable as an infringer." Critics call it an attempt to overturn Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, where the Supreme Court allowed consumers to tape television broadcasts to watch at another time or on another machine.
But Senate aides familiar with the draft defend it as an appropriate update to the Betamax decision in an age of peer-to-peer (P2P) software networks. The file-sharing companies Grokster and Streamcast relied upon the Sony precedent when prevailing over entertainment companies in an April 2003 federal court decision. It is currently on appeal.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040621.htm#3
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 18

Antitrust
Lawmakers To Push Antitrust Break For Satellite Rivals
by Drew Clark

Rival satellite companies EchoStar Communications and DirecTV would be granted an antitrust exemption enabling them to collaborate and launch local television retransmissions in the smallest metropolitan areas under a measure to be offered in the House Judiciary Committee.
The proposal would be an amendment to the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act currently up for renewal in Congress. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said he and Rick Boucher, D-Va., plan to offer the legislation at the Judiciary Committee debate, which could come next week.
The item was scheduled for committee action Thursday but was not considered for lack of time.
Separately, EchoStar and DirecTV reacted positively to the version of the legislation approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. That version is more favorable to the interests of satellite companies -- versus the interests of broadcasters or content owners -- than the House measure.

[more...]
http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040618.htm#2
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 17

Telecom
Lawmakers Cite Puerto Rico As Model Of E-Rate Failures
by Drew Clark

More than $100 million collected from telephone ratepayers through a fund designed to bring telecommunications services to rural areas was wasted in Puerto Rico, legislators said Thursday, and the FCC's inspector general testified that it was "the very tip" of the problem.
Speaking before the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, FCC inspector Walker Feaster said the waste in Puerto Rico was emblematic of failures in the universal service fund's e-rate program that connects schools and libraries to the Internet.
"The program may be subject to unacceptably high risk of fraud, waste and abuse through noncompliance and program weaknesses," Feaster told the subcommittee, which plans several hearings on the e-rate. He said 32 percent of 122 e-rate beneficiaries that his office investigated had misused the fund and that another 17 percent were not compliant with the FCC's procedures governing it.

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040617.htm#1
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 16

Telecom
Regulatory Break For Internet Telephony Faces Criticism
by Drew Clark

Senators from both political parties, state regulators, police officers and interests ranging from Consumers Union to rural telephone companies on Wednesday derided legislation that would exempt Internet telephone service from regulation.
Technology and telecommunications companies, including entrepreneur Jeff Pulver and the chief operating officer of Cablevision Systems Corp., supported the bill offered by New Hampshire Republican John Sununu at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
Democratic Sens. Ernest (Fritz) Hollings of South Carolina and Ron Wyden of Oregon called the bill premature, with Hollings concerned about eliminating state and federal consumer protections and Wyden raising concerns about telemarketing privacy.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040616.htm#4(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)


From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 16

Telecom
Internet Phone Service Sparks Debate Over Wiretapping
by Drew Clark

The debate over a bill to exempt Internet telephone services from state and most federal regulation also encompasses the battle between the Justice Department and technology companies over the proper framework for conducting digital wiretaps.
At issue is the scope of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which Justice and its FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration want to apply to Internet services like voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP).
At the Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing over a bill, S. 2281, that would exempt VoIP from typical telecommunications regulation, a witness from Justice and the Center for Democracy and Technology sparred over how and whether CALEA should apply to the Internet.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040616.htm#5
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 15

Telecom
High Court's Decision Creates Legal Limbo On Line Sharing
by Drew Clark

FCC rules that require the regional Bell telecommunications companies to share their networks with competitors at deep discounts will expire Wednesday, but there is no clear roadmap for what federal and state regulations will replace them and when.
The Supreme Court's refusal on Monday to stop a decision by the federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that favored the Bells leaves few legal avenues available to competitors like AT&T; and MCI -- and to state regulators. The decision means that the FCC-mandated discounts will expire.
Each of the four Bells has pledged not to immediately raise the rates they charge competitors, and Verizon Communications promised to wait until Nov. 11, the week after the election.
Last week the Bush administration sided with the Bells. Solicitor General Theodore Olson declined to seek Supreme Court review of the D.C. circuit's decision.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040615.htm#2(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 4

White House
Commerce Official Details Administration Broadband Record
by Drew Clark

President Bush has an established record supporting broadband Internet access, an administration official said in an interview.
"We have addressed [the goal of universal broadband] with actions" during the first three years of the administration, said Michael Gallagher, acting assistant secretary of Commerce and head of the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA).
Many in the technology industry have long sought mention of the word "broadband" from the president's lips. But Bush mentioned broadband in a March 26 speech focused on housing issues, calling for a "national goal for ... the spread of broadband technology." Earlier that day, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry released an economic plan that cited broadband as the first of four key economic items. The president gave three more speeches addressing the topic in April.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040604.htm#1
(subscription required; also available on Lexis-Nexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 3

Spectrum
FCC Chairman Urges New Rules For Greater Flexibility
by Drew Clark

FCC Chairman Michael Powell said Thursday that greater flexibility is needed to spur innovation and competition within a band of spectrum traditionally used by educational institutions and providers of video services known as "wireless cable."
"Now is the time for new rules that will allow greater flexibility for other wireless services," Powell said in a keynote speech at the Wireless Communications Association's (WCA) forum. "We are working very hard to develop new roles that are more efficient and make more effective use of the 2.5 gigahertz band," he said.
Wireless Internet groups like WCA generally favor flexible spectrum rules, but have raised concerns with reports that the FCC's rule changes will strip one-sixth of the spectrum currently allocated to each licensee within the band.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040603.htm#1
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 2

Digital Television
House Committee Chairman Pushes For More Aggressive Plan
by Drew Clark

The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Wednesday that an FCC plan to expedite the nation's transition to digital television was not aggressive enough and urged the transition be finalized by 2006.
Texas Republican Joe Barton praised the plan, by FCC Media Bureau Chief Ken Ferree, to end analog broadcasting and return that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to Congress in 2009. At a committee hearing on the subject, he acknowledged the inter-industry squabbling set off by a plan to recoup spectrum, but cautioned, "the primary decision is when we do it, and then how, and then the equity" between industry groups.
"We want satellite, cable, broadcasters, and the equipment people to be fairly treated," Barton told panelists from the industries, most of whom quibbled with elements of the Ferree plan. "I think this committee is able to do that."

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040602.htm#1
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)


From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 2

Telecom
Key Lawyer Favors Appeals Court Decision On Network-Sharing
by Drew Clark

Former solicitor general and independent counsel Ken Starr said Wednesday the March 2 D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision favoring Bell telecommunications companies was "exactly right" and ought not to be appealed to the Supreme Court.
To do otherwise would be to sanction the FCC's "entirely new venture with no basis in law or presidential power," Starr said, referring to the agency's February 2003 decision to "delegate fundamental questions of telecommunications policy to state entities."
"This is not simply a quibble over the Telecom Act," said Starr, speaking at a Progress and Freedom Foundation luncheon on the Supreme Court and the 1996 law. "It is a fundamental disagreement about power in the executive and our federal systems."

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040602.htm#2
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 1

Digital Television
Media Bureau Plan Offers Spectrum Deal To Broadcasters
by Drew Clark

Broadcasters that voluntarily return the spectrum they currently use to show analog television programs would get mandatory carriage of all their digital television programs on cable systems, under a draft version of an FCC Media Bureau plan.
The two-page document, a copy of which was obtained by National Journal's Technology Daily, has been circulated on Capitol Hill in advance of the Wednesday's House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the digital television proposal.
By granting broadcasters that return spectrum the right to have all digital programs - including those that are "multicast" in standard definition - carried on cable systems, the latest version of the plan gives broadcasters something they have long sought.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040601.htm#2
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)


From National Journal’s Technology Daily | June 1

Telecom
Report: White House Likely To Seek Review Of Line-Sharing
by Drew Clark

The Bush administration is likely to seek Supreme Court review of an appeals court decision freeing Bell companies from sharing telephone lines with competitors like AT&T;, according to a new research report.
"In urging the Bush administration to seek Supreme Court review of [the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision], we think AT&T; has appealed to core operating principles and policy values of the Bush White House," notes the Prudential Equity Group report, by senior vice president and political analyst Jim Lucier.
The March 2 appeals court was a landmark victory for the Bell telecom firms - BellSouth, SBC Communications, Verizon Communications and Qwest - who have urged the administration and Congress to let the decision stand.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040601.htm#3
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 28

Security
U.S., EU Sign Passenger Name Record Deal
by Drew Clark

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and two top European Union officials on Friday signed an agreement allowing the U.S. government to collect airline passenger name record (PNR) information on flights between Europe and the United States.
Ridge called the agreement "an essential security measure" that allows the Homeland Security's Customs and Bureau Protection "to link information about known terrorists, criminals and co-conspirators in their plots."
Ridge also said the agreement, which was held up for more than a year by European privacy concerns about sharing data, "contains appropriate privacy protections that reflect the shared values surrounding privacy protection that we embrace together with our colleagues in the EU."

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040528.htm#1
(subscription required; also available on Lexis-Nexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 27

Digital Television
Echostar To Stop Using Controversial Satellite-Dish Practice
by Drew Clark

Echostar will stop using two satellite dishes in new markets, the firm's CEO committed to in a Wednesday letter to Capitol Hill, although he cautioned that the company could not completely eliminate the practice until 2008.
Executive Charlie Ergen also criticized the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) - the key opponent of the two-dish practice - for failing to meet the 2002 deadline imposed by Congress to begin broadcasting digital television signals, calling it a "double standard" and "outrageous."
The letter is an attempt to stop Congress from passing draft legislation that would ban Echostar's practice of using two dishes to receive local broadcast signals retransmitted over satellite within 12 months. Religious and Spanish-language stations and the NAB object to the practice on the grounds that it discriminates against stations sent to the second dish, even though Echostar provides those dishes free of charge.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040527.htm#2
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 26

Intellectual Property
Group Offers Alternative To Anti-Piracy Broadcasting Treaty
by Drew Clark

A group of non-profit organizations objecting to the current version of a treaty designed to protect broadcasters from piracy have allied themselves with an artists' group and on Wednesday proposed a stripped-down alternative.
Spearheaded by the Consumer Project on Technology and joined by the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF), the alternative proposal also would protect broadcasters against signal piracy. But it would also narrow the scope of the intellectual property rights broadcasters could assert.
Government officials leading the U.S. delegation to the June 7-9 World Intellectual Property Organization meeting in Geneva that will consider the more expansive broadcaster treaty praised the non-profits for its alternative version, which was presented Wednesday to officials of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040526.htm#3
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 25

Telecom
FCC, Bell Rivals Urge For More Time On Line-Sharing Rules
by Drew Clark

The FCC and a group of Bell competitors urged an appeals court late Monday to wait 15 more days before enforcing a controversial decision that the Bell competitors say would substantially raise telecommunications costs.
In two legal filings at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the FCC and a group of 28 Bell telecommunications rivals urged the court to wait until June 30 before requiring the FCC and state regulators to change rules governing the terms and conditions under which Bell companies must share their telecommunications lines.
The legal maneuverings are the latest development in the continuing high-stakes battle that is one legacy of the 1996 Telecom Act. The D.C. Circuit's March 2 decision was a landmark victory for the Bells' key trade association, and its members - including Verizon, SBC Communications, and Bell South - have urged the Bush administration not to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040525.htm#2(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)


From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 25

Digital Television
Experts Disagree Over Best Path For Media Marketplace
by Drew Clark

While both a critic and supporter of media ownership caps agreed during a debate Tuesday that the media marketplace is skewed because broadcasters benefit from special government protections, they offered radically different prescriptions for the future of over-the-air television.
"Free over-the-air television is largely doomed because 87 percent of consumers have flocked to cable and satellite television," said Adam Thierer, director of telecommunications studies for the Cato Institute in a debate with Andrew Schwartzman, CEO of the Media Access Project.
Preserving caps on the percentage of nation-wide television viewers that a given broadcasters may own is an effort to "preserve an outdated model on behalf of the broadcasters" that is destined to failure, Thierer said.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040525.htm#3
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 24

Telecom
Internet Telephony Issues Concern Emergency First Responders
by Drew Clark

GAITHERSBURG, Md. - After spending more than $170 million upgrading and centralizing its public safety communication system, Montgomery County police officers are concerned that voice-over-Internet (VoIP) protocol will pose insuperable problems for responding to 911 emergency calls.
Montgomery County unveiled its new communications center here in October, which combines a 911 call center, the county's traffic monitoring system, and a basement-level emergency operations center. The center serves as the public safety answering point for all 911 calls placed in the county, whether over a traditional wire-line or cellular phone.
Telephone calls placed over the Internet, however, are not routed through traditional public safety answering points, whether it is a state-of-the-art facility like here or an older and less technology-intensive center.
"It is a major problem," said Steve Souder, director of the county's 911 emergency communications center. "The challenge of VoIP [is one] we have to address very quickly instead of years down the road."

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040524.htm#1
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 21

Broadband
White House Encourages Broadband Over Power Lines
by Drew Clark

The FCC and Bush administration are encouraging the prospect of sending high-speed Internet communications over electrical power lines, a development that may prompt new players into the market and add a new dimension to the broadband debate.
One of the leading technology companies providing broadband over power line (BPL) on Wednesday told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that after several false steps, the technology and business climate is finally ready for BPL to take off.
President Bush has praised the technology. In an April 26 speech, one of four he has given recently promoting his goal of universal broadband by 2007, he said, "There needs to be technical standards to make possible new broadband technologies, such as the use of high-speed communication directly over power lines."

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040521.htm#1
(subscription required; also available on Lexis-Nexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 20

Telecom
Experts Duel Over Legalities Of Tapping Internet Phones
by Drew Clark

Experts on Thursday said the FBI's attempt to include voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) technology within the ambit of a digital-wiretapping statute is either consistent and justifiable or a gross attempt to control technological innovation that far exceeds the law.
Those stark differences of opinion about the application of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to VoIP were voiced by five experts on technology and surveillance policy at a Thursday forum hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus and its affiliated education foundation.
Passed in 1994, CALEA requires telecommunications companies to build wiretapping capabilities into their digital networks to facilitate the police's court-ordered surveillance of suspects. Internet services were excluded from coverage. VoIP has led the FBI to urge that firms offering those services also be subject to CALEA.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040520.htm#3
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)


From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 20

Digital Television
FCC Commissioners Seriously Entertain Transition Plan
by Drew Clark

The FCC's five commissioners have considered very seriously an agency Media Bureau proposal to expedite the transition to digital television, a commissioner said Thursday morning, urging broadcasters to engage in debate about the plan.
"Many people thought it would be dismissed, but instead it has spurred a good discussion," commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said of the plan authored by Media Bureau Chief Ken Ferree. The plan effectively would end the transition to digital television in 2009, freeing 108 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum for other uses.
"We need to get our hands back on that spectrum," Adelstein said. "We are under huge demand to get this spectrum out" for new applications like wireless Internet access. He referred to Wednesday's all-day seminar on wireless broadband, in which many technology and Internet service providers called for more spectrum in the bands currently used by broadcasters.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040520.htm#5
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 19

Telecom
Lawmakers: Tech Convergence Demands Rethinking Of Rules
by Drew Clark

The convergence of once-separate electronic devices and telecommunications networks means that Congress must rethink or retire the existing legal framework that shoehorns telephones, cellular communications, televisions and the Internet into different regulatory categories, House lawmakers said Wednesday.
Kicking off a unique hearing that showcased the latest gizmos from technology and communications companies, Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton said the "blurring of the lines" dictates regulatory change. The Michigan Republican said the "stovepipe regulation perpetuated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 needs to be revisited given the evolution in technology and the marketplace that was virtually unforeseen at the time of the act's creation."
California Republican Christopher Cox, R-Calif., took the argument further, noting that new technologies undermine the original "scarcity" rationale for regulation.
"Perhaps we should declare victory" and hold a hearing instead to close the FCC and "schedule a long district work period," Cox said. "There is much talk in Washington about a rewrite of the Telecom Act. It is possible what we will learn today is that retirement would be a better option."

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040519.htm#7
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 18

FCC Opens Lab To Critique Various Interference Claims
by Drew Clark

COLUMBIA, Md. -- FCC Chairman Michael Powell on Tuesday cut a red ribbon blocking the door to an $750,000 echo-free chamber that the agency's test laboratory here plans to use to verify competing claims about interference on the airwaves.
The symbolic unveiling of the "anechoic" chamber will permit FCC engineers to take more reliable measures of everyday electronic devices such as radios, cellular telephones, Wi-Fi cards for wireless Internet access and other wireless devices.
"If you are going to make public-interest decisions about radio frequency, you better have a good technical staff or you are going to be an agency that is listening only to lawyers," Powell said.
He cited three controversies involving interference: between cell phones and public-safety communications in the 800-megahertz (MHz) band of spectrums, in ultrawideband communications (UWB), and on broadband service over power lines, the industry term for carrying high-speed Internet signals long distances throughout the electrical grid.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040518.htm#4
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)

From National Journal’s Technology Daily | May 17

Telecom
FCC Member Credits Mobile Success To Deregulatory Model
by Drew Clark

Wireless communications are flourishing because the FCC's regulatory approach in the sector has been more hands-off than the model governing traditional telecommunications, an FCC commissioner said Monday.
The FCC sees the general deregulatory attitude that has spurred success in wireless communication as a possible model for spurring high-speed Internet access, Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy added.
"If you think you have to share your [services with competing companies] at really cheap prices, you don't want to invest" in improving facilities and services, Abernathy said in a luncheon speech at a Manhattan Institute forum on property rights in telecommunications.

[more...]

http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040517.htm#4
(subscription required; also available on LexisNexis)