Poverty or propaganda: the spin on local competition

摘要

Local competition may be in its infancy, but the spin doctors are feeding it big dose of statistics that support their positions. The latest spin comes from the United States Telephone Association (USTA), which claims that the LEC industry could lose billions in revenue and as much as 40% of its equity value if the FCC makes drastic changes in local interconnection rules. Not true, retort long-distance carriers such as MCI. They say the RBOCs will do just fine under local competition. Besides, the Telecom Act didn't tell the FCC to worry about LEC stock prices when it assigned an Aug. 8 deadline for setting interconnection regs, says MCI.