Until just a few years ago, there was only one local telephone service provider. In 1996, Washington realized that consumers can benefit from competition in phone services the same way they benefit from competition throughout the rest of the U.S. economy. That’s why Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 – ending years of protected monopoly status for the big Bell companies such as SBC, and allowing for the first time new telephone service providers such as Sage Telecom to provide competitive alternatives to consumers.

Ever since, the big Bell companies have been spending hundreds of millions of dollars fighting this new competition. They have fought at the FCC, they have fought at each of the state commissions, they have fought at the state legislatures, and they have fought at the courts. They figured that eventually, by hiring so many lawyers and fighting in so many venues, they would stumble across a way to block the first real competition that they have ever faced. Unfortunately for consumers, they found that way on March 2 of this year.

That was when, at the prompting of the big Bells, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington decided to take away the ability of the states to promote local phone competition. But the court didn’t stop there. Instead, it also decided to eliminate current FCC rules that enable competitors such as Sage to purchase wholesale access to the Bell network!

The big Bell companies didn’t spend much time celebrating their big court win. Instead, they began notifying the new competitors that the Bell price for any wholesale services and connections that they still have to provide will be going up. Well that wouldn’t matter if new competitive companies such as Sage could order key services and connections to your home or small business from someone else. But there is no one other than the Bells – there is no wholesale market for such connections or services except the one that the Washington court is attempting to help the Bells obliterate.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with a fight for basic consumer rights – the right of choice and the right for a competitive price.

If something isn’t done quickly, the big Bell companies will win. Right now, every voice counts. You can help make a difference! And we need you to do so.

So logon now to <!-- www.comptelaction.org --> and click on “Write the FCC” to craft a message to Washington and your local leaders. It’s an easy process that takes only a few minutes. You’ll have control – you get to read the entire message before you click to send it. So please help fix this before it’s too late. It’s been good to have a competitive choice. It will be terrible if it goes away!

 

Sure gald I live in the West.....this is East coast only right now?

 

I haven't heard anything about it up here in the Northeast.I get my service through Verizon.They seem big enough to compete.

 

I think it speaks volumes about the level phone companies, including the smaller players, will stoop to when their employees resort to using web forums for lobbying without disclosing their affiliation/employment with the telecom.

Link removed. It you want to lobby for your employer, please don't do it here.

 

There's already a monopoly on the West Coast, the majority of phone service (Pacbell, NVbell, Swbell, Ameritech, SNET and a couple of other `big bells`) are owned by SBC. SBC also provides internet, and more than you would think. They are the parent company of AT&T (now, they just bought it last week), Cingular Wireless, Sprint, RoadRunner, Comcast and Warner Cable, so when customers get mad and go to a different ISP, they still pay SBC. If their rates go up, there's really no alternative.

 

Well I am sorry you felt it was necessary to remove the link. I posted this of my own accord not for the company I work for. I am not hiding the fact that I work for SageTelecom. I am posting this link to try and save my job and the jobs of many other people that work in the telecom industry. I felt posting this in the general discussion forum was appropriate and met the guidelines of this site. If you do not wish to have people post information that is important to them or effects there daily lives and their ability to purchase things from this site(which I have done only a diablo delta to this point but was soon to be an AFE intake) you should update your forum guidelines.