The effects of Bell Nino, which jumped on the radar screen in Wichita Falls, Texas, New Year’s Eve, are being felt in the nation’s capital.
The Bells and U.S. District Judge Joe Kendall prove venue shopping has its rewards. Thanks to Good Ol’ Joe, the Baby Bells (SBC, U S West and Bell Atlantic for now) can enter the long-distance business without first opening their local markets to competition.
Mind you, the Bells can offer wireless long distance without strings attached akin to a competitive check list. But, in the cosmic scheme of things, the Kendall ruling has further embarrassed telecom policy makers who have watched one FCC telecom act-related decision after another successfully challenged in court.
All of a sudden, C-block debt restructuring and wireless bankruptcies don’t look so bad to the Kennard FCC.
Naturally, AT&T, MCI and Sprint are outraged. So are international-satellite-reform-minded Reps. Tom Bliley (Republican in the Virginia district where AT&T workers live) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Markey says that by litigating the issue the Bells broke a deal with Congress on telecom reform. But everyone knows every handshake in this town comes with a wink.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) exclaims that Kendall is right and that the telecom act is not working. But being an election year, there’ll be more venting than fix-it legislation.
FCC General Counsel Chris Wright and other legal eagles in the Clinton camp last week asked for a stay of the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.
Give the Bells and Kendall credit for inspired legal strategy. First, they wrap themselves in the Bill of Attainder Clause to justify the right to enter the long-distance markets. In layman’s language, SBC claims the telecom act hurt its feelings.
Second, not withstanding the loneliness of monopolizing local markets, BellSouth says the MCI-WorldCom merger should be conditioned upon Bell entry into long distance.
Meanwhile, more mergers (SBC-SNET at $4.4 billion and AT&T-Teleport at $10 billion-$11 billion) are in the works. Justice trustbuster Joel Klein better start browsing beyond Bill Gates’ Microsoft or Humpty Dumpty will together again before he knows it.
…Gun shy, are you? Telstra, the Australian telecom carrier that funded a study that found higher-than-normal cancer in transgenic mice zapped with RF, refuses to cooperate with Aussie cancer specialist Dr. Andrew Davidson to test his theory that increases in brain tumors between 1982 and 1992 relate to use of analog phones in that period.
Meanwhile, a cottage industry of safe “low radiation” mobile phones has popped up. While the WHO moves ahead on the cancer question, Carlo & Co. tells Scientific American to expect RF research results early this year. Right.
Motorola adds to its prestigious RF health and safety staff by signing up C.K. Chou, a WTR alumnus. Chou joins Mays Swicord, who Motorola recruited from FDA.
360 Communications wants the FCC to declare that state courts cannot block construction of cell sites on health grounds if carriers meet federal RF guidelines. Good luck.
