Mergers Raise Concerns Over Internet Access

[rtroxel]

From an article in The Washington Post (Feb. 16):

Will consumers and businesses be harmed if long-distance choices disappear when AT&T and MCI are swallowed by telephone giants SBC and Verizon?

The focus on Internet services, as well as on long-distance calling, is testimony to the breathtaking changes in the communications landscape over the past several years.

For many consumers, wireless service is a substitute for traditional local and long-distance phone service. Under the administration of outgoing FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, phone line discounts were eliminated, making it difficult for companies such as MCI, AT&T and smaller players to offer local service over local phone company lines.

Meanwhile, the local phone giants were allowed to enter the long-distance market. Together, these government moves caused the MCIs and AT&Ts of the world to begin withdrawing from serving residential customers. As a result, experts said, regulators would be hard-pressed to reject mergers that eliminated local phone service competitors that already had decided to leave the market because of government policies.

But MCI and AT&T are major providers of "Internet backbone," the large pipes that carry data around the world in the same way that interstate highways are the arteries for long-distance car traffic.

The question being raised here is what effect will these mergers have on the freedom of the Internet? I say "very little", because the Internet is not like television or radio. Anybody, with a degree of technical knowledge, can log onto the Net and set up his or her own Web sites. Hacking will continue because it's so difficult to stop. True, security controls can be set up for specific Web sites, but getting onto the Web itself just isn't that difficult. You could do it with a laptop somewhere in Central Africa.

[Brian Turner]

Good post - it's a shame I didn't cover the Verizon + MCI acquisition on the news blog, but I missed the story.

Essentially, it's about the American market squaring up into two halves - SBC vs Verizon. When SBC offered on AT&T, there was talk on the finance markets that Verizon would have to go for a deal on MCI to remain competitive in the marketplace.

Interestly, I believe Microsoft has deals with both to offer software for provision of internet TV...

[rtroxel]

Interestly, I believe Microsoft has deals with both to offer software for provision of internet TV...

Right you are. Check this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6881812/