The $10 Billion Fight Over Phone Lines Rages On
Kim Hart at The Hill captures the latest on the fight to rein in Verizon, AT&T and Qwest and their monopoly pricing for the back end telephone lines known as special access circuits.
Thought you don't see a line item for special access on your phone bill, you're paying through the nose so AT&T, Verizon and Qwest can rake in record profits.
When do you pay? Every time you make a wireless phone call, every time you swipe your credit or debit card at an ATM or supermarket check out, every time you surf the Internet and every time you send an email.
The profit margins these big phone companies earn are, on average, over 100 percent above cost.
I am all for making money, but when they is no competition businesses can jack up prices and the rest of us get screwed.
That's exactly what's happening here.
Fortunately, the new FCC, led by Chairman Julius Genachowski, is taking a very active role in gathering data about the marketplace. That's the first step they must take before they can stop AT&T, Verizon and Qwest.
I'm hopeful they will do just that later this year.
To learn more about this issue, visit www.nochokepoints.org.
