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TeleTruth is a national, independent, customer advocacy group,
dedicated to fixing the problems in telecommunications -- from customer
overcharging and harm to competitors, to the customer issues surrounding
Broadband deployment and competition.
We believe America’s telecommunications infrastructure are
essential facilities to the collective economic health and growth
of business in America and important to the quality of life for
individuals. Like our roads and water systems these facilities are
a public good and so should remain free from private control and
manipulation. This was recognized in the ’96 Telecom Act as
well as the original regulated monopoly creation.
Unfortunately we’ve inherited a legacy of private monopoly
control of telecommunications infrastructure. For 85 years this
monopoly was known as Ma Bell, AT&T. The breakup created seven
so-called Baby Bells, each with a monopoly of local phone services
in their region. These have now consolidated into 4 companies: SBC,
Verizon, BellSouth, Qwest.
These 4 consolidated incumbents local exchange carriers (ILECs)
have used their monopoly control of the physical infrastructure
to not merely maintain revenues from existing telephone customers
but to unfairly leverage to dominant positions in new businesses
like cellular, PCS and DSL. The American public has already paid
in full for this infrastructure through regulated rates over the
last 100 years!
Despite the ’96 Telecom Act that mandated that this critical
infrastructure be accessible to competitors, the Baby Bells have
resisted these requirements. Unfortunately the enforcement mechanisms
are woefully inadequate – the FCC as well as the state Public
Utilities Commissions do not have sufficient resources to consistently
monitor these vast companies. More importantly, the statutory punishment
for wrongdoing are fines (in $ millions) too small to matter to
multi-billion dollar companies like the Bells. Therefore it is cheaper
for these monopolies to ignore the law and pay the fines, than to
comply!
Consequently these companies now hold this infrastructure hostage
and charge monopoly rates to use it. They have a well documented,
long-standing and widespread pattern of manipulating regulators,
legislators, the press and public opinion by promising to deliver
new services in exchange for reduced regulatory burdens and lower
rates. We need stronger regulations, penalties and enforcement to
counteract this monopoly until competition can be nurtured and market
forces become self-sustainable without regulation.
Teletruth’s mission is to coalesce a constituency articulating
public interests in a fair and dynamically competitive marketplace
for telecom.
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