Free Republic

The Wall Street Journal today reports that Chairman Michael Powell will ask the FCC to vote early next month on changes that would force competitors to pay the giant Bell companies higher rates to lease lines - "a move," write Journal reporters Yochi J. Dreazen and Shawn Young, "that could reduce competition and price-cutting in the local phone market." There's no "could" about it. If the FCC goes ahead on Powell's plan, the huge gains that consumers have scored in the past year will be erased, and the chances for a high-tech recovery will diminish. If there is one...

Canada: Romanow commission report says private health clinics should go OTTAWA (CP) - In a properly funded public health system, there should be no need for private clinics offering MRI scans or minor surgery, the Romanow commission said Thursday. Growing reliance on private diagnostic services "is eroding the equal access principle at the heart of medicare," said the report, which urged governments to reconsider the practice of sending workers' compensation cases to private orthopedic clinics for fast-track surgery. "Rather than subsidize private facilities with public dollars, governments should choose to ensure that the public system has sufficient capacity and is...

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The local telephone industry's financial woes have become a tool in an intense lobbying campaign for deregulation. The fix being sought by the industry: Elimination of rules that require companies like SBC Communications Inc. to lease elements of their networks at deep discounts to competitors that are entering the local telephone service market, like AT&T Corp. or WorldCom Inc. . But regulation isn't the sole cause of SBC's decline in net income last quarter, says David Loomis, an economist at Illinois State University who previously worked for Bell Atlantic, now Verizon. Regulation isn't the only reason...