THE MEAN STEPMOTHER IS BACK
After years of turning her children (employees) out in the cold and forcing her distant relatives (shareholders) to take one cold bath after another, Ma Bell is back and throwing her weight around. We thought we had seen the last of her after she turned her son Lucent out on the street without ever preparing him to compete in an open economy. He was always considered a prodigy when his Ma was protecting him, but in the face of competition he fell apart. Ma always was the biggest bully in her neighborhood.
That was really the story of Ma Bell, a neat housekeeper who seemed to be on top of things as long as she was protected by her Uncle. Ma wasn’t concerned that her neighbors might complain about her bullying. Under her Uncle’s shield, she even controlled that neighborhood protection service known as the FCC. But as soon as her Uncle cut her loose, Ma nor her kids knew how to conduct themselves against competition. For almost one hundred years nobody in her communications neighborhood could stand up to Ma’s overbearing behavior.
Despite Ma’s claims that she provided the best communications services in the world, communications began to flourish with new services and products just as soon as MA was banished to a nursing home by her Uncle. All of the neighbors that Ma used to stomp suddenly became greater prodigies than her son Lucent. And the American people loved all of the new products and services that improved the quality of their lives. They also loved the fact that everything was now cheaper than when Ma was ruling the roost.
Undoing the wise move
Everyone was happy except Ma’s brothers who started to plot and plan how to bring the family back together. The other people that were unhappy were the children who used to work for Ma and her brothers—but nobody gave a damn about them and, anyway, they had no clout. Slowly but surely, Ma Bell’s ugly family is being united. Living together under one roof will give them great opportunities to hatch and carry out their nefarious schemes. Watch them build obstacles to our use of the Internet. Watch them drive the small creative communications companies out of business. Watch your communications costs go up and up and up. Watch the rate of innovation go down.
Who will protect the consumers and small business users of communications services? Surely not the Federal Communications Commission, that bastion of incompetence that focused solely on keeping porn off the airwaves. The agency probably will return to the days when Ma Bell’s representatives blanketed the place.
Think about it. There has been more innovation in communications in the 20 years since the break up of AT&T than in the previous 100 years when there was no competition.
Perhaps calls and e-mails to your representatives and senators calling for them to stop the ATT-Bell South merger may be helpful. I doubt it, but it’s worth a try.
After years of turning her children (employees) out in the cold and forcing her distant relatives (shareholders) to take one cold bath after another, Ma Bell is back and throwing her weight around. We thought we had seen the last of her after she turned her son Lucent out on the street without ever preparing him to compete in an open economy. He was always considered a prodigy when his Ma was protecting him, but in the face of competition he fell apart. Ma always was the biggest bully in her neighborhood.
That was really the story of Ma Bell, a neat housekeeper who seemed to be on top of things as long as she was protected by her Uncle. Ma wasn’t concerned that her neighbors might complain about her bullying. Under her Uncle’s shield, she even controlled that neighborhood protection service known as the FCC. But as soon as her Uncle cut her loose, Ma nor her kids knew how to conduct themselves against competition. For almost one hundred years nobody in her communications neighborhood could stand up to Ma’s overbearing behavior.
Despite Ma’s claims that she provided the best communications services in the world, communications began to flourish with new services and products just as soon as MA was banished to a nursing home by her Uncle. All of the neighbors that Ma used to stomp suddenly became greater prodigies than her son Lucent. And the American people loved all of the new products and services that improved the quality of their lives. They also loved the fact that everything was now cheaper than when Ma was ruling the roost.
Undoing the wise move
Everyone was happy except Ma’s brothers who started to plot and plan how to bring the family back together. The other people that were unhappy were the children who used to work for Ma and her brothers—but nobody gave a damn about them and, anyway, they had no clout. Slowly but surely, Ma Bell’s ugly family is being united. Living together under one roof will give them great opportunities to hatch and carry out their nefarious schemes. Watch them build obstacles to our use of the Internet. Watch them drive the small creative communications companies out of business. Watch your communications costs go up and up and up. Watch the rate of innovation go down.
Who will protect the consumers and small business users of communications services? Surely not the Federal Communications Commission, that bastion of incompetence that focused solely on keeping porn off the airwaves. The agency probably will return to the days when Ma Bell’s representatives blanketed the place.
Think about it. There has been more innovation in communications in the 20 years since the break up of AT&T than in the previous 100 years when there was no competition.
Perhaps calls and e-mails to your representatives and senators calling for them to stop the ATT-Bell South merger may be helpful. I doubt it, but it’s worth a try.
posted by THE NEW DIOGENES at 9:37 PM
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