WASHINGTON-A new study concludes further deregulation and consolidation in the telecommunications industry would lead to $93 billion in consumer welfare benefits by 2005.
The conclusions of the report, conducted by Dr. Joel Popkin of the New Millennium Research Council and underwritten by Bell Atlantic Corp., flies in the face of conventional wisdom espoused by regulators and consumer groups.
Popkin acknowledged as much, but maintains that unfettered deregulation and consolidation lead to higher efficiencies and lower consumer prices.
Federal regulators, according to the study, are making policy based on inadequate data that fails to take into account the entry of new wireless carriers, Internet service providers, competitive local exchange companies, long-distance providers and others.
The study said the market should be defined more broadly into a single market-the information transportation market
