ms6b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Marvin Sirbu) (04/06/89)
You don't need divestiture to have a problem with COCOTS. You don't even need facilities based competition. All you need are: 1) Authorization of resale of long distance, with no price regualtion for resale carriers. 2) Authorization to property owners that they may choose the AOS operator of their choice, and receive whatever kickback that operator wants to give them. Given these two propositions, both of which are strictly within the domain of the FCC, you can create all the problems we have seen with AOS. The solution therefore, is also within the domain of the FCC. Either a) eliminate resale. This of course would eliminate Telenet, Tymnet, Compuserve and all other value added network providers. b) compel the property owner to contract with only the lowest cost service provider (likely to lead to low level of service quality.) c) limit the level of kickbacks to property owners, thereby reducing (partially) the incentive for high AOS prices; or d) put price caps on what AOS operators can charge. e) mandate that all carriers be reachable from every payphone and educate customers to choose the lowest cost carrier. f) do nothing. I vote for d). Marvin Sirbu Carnegie Mellon University internet: ms6b+@andrew.cmu.edu bitnet: ms6b+%andrew@CMCCVB