Pickering Prescribes Competitive Coalition to Take on Bells in Washington
ORLANDO -- Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., urged competitive telecom companies to form a Washington alliance to fight large phone company lobbying. In a CompTel keynote, he said the alliance should include Comcast, Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, Google and competitive local exchange carriers. A coalition of that scale could be effective in combating AT&T, Verizon and other large companies’ significant Hill presence, he said. Strategy aside, Pickering predicted sunny days for competitors. Election day and the financial crisis create new opportunities for CLECs to push policy goals, he said.
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A new president will mean “a new day” for competitive carriers, Pickering said. CompTel CEO Jerry James agreed that the government change makes 2009 “the year of possibilities.” Pickering, who voted for the 1996 Telecom Act, said the U.S. lost its way in the early 2000s under the Bush administration. Telecom saw consolidation instead of more competition, he said. Pickering expects positive strides by whoever is elected president to restore the pro- competitive atmosphere of 1996, he said. Competitive carriers should tell the next administration that the most recent telecom policy regime was wrong, and demand pro- competitive policy to prevent further consolidation, he said.
Pickering also sees opportunity in the financial services meltdown, he said. CLECs should tell government “there is such a thing as good regulation” to build free markets, said Pickering. CompTel Chairman Sherman Henderson also was upbeat on the economy, but from a business perspective. Monday’s Dow Jones and Nasdaq nosedive “assured all of us in this room that we're all going to be working for a long, long time,” he said.
Pickering condemned universal service and intercarrier compensation overhaul proposals being considered at the FCC, saying implementing them would discourage competition. Pickering, now in his final term, said he would “grieve” if his legacy included formation of a telecom duopoly. Universal Service Fund policy must advocate both competition and universality, he said. Today, “we have the worst of all worlds,” Pickering said. The USF should be more transparent and efficient, and should decline over time, he said. It shouldn’t be technology neutral, but should encourage the most efficient technology, Pickering said.