The Fed Enables Bigger Business To Eat Other Business

Verizon Exemption Could Make Businesses Pay: Broadband Deregulation in the Business Market has Arrived, Whether Anyone Wants It or Not

Anti-consumer policies continue to be the banner of the Republican-dominated government. In this case, Verizon--and soon other big telecom conglomerates--has gotten permission to eat from the trough of every one of its business customers... and we can be sure that they will devour as much of their business customers' profits as they can.

Earlier this week, the Federal Communications Commission acknowledged at a conference in San Diego that Verizon Communications had been exempted from regulation on its business-broadband service.

Verizon had filed a petition in December 2004 asking the FCC to free it of all regulation. The FCC was split on the issue and didn't actually vote on the petition, but the measure was granted because the commission failed to deny or accept it before a deadline last week. According to the law, if the petition had not been denied within a set period of time, it would be granted.

The exemption essentially gives Verizon the power to charge its business customers and competitive carriers, who use Verizon's local access network to connect to businesses, any price it likes for using the network. It also frees the phone company from making contributions to the Universal Service Fund.

For Verizon and possibly other local phone companies like AT&T, which also plans to file a petition, the inaction of the FCC and the eventual granting of the exemption is great news. Verizon has effectively succeeded in freeing itself from regulation that required it to share its network with competitive carriers and dictated prices it could charge customers.