When It Pays To Break The Law
from the cost-of-doing-business dept
If you are a Baby Bell it makes more sense to pay penalties for anticompetitive practices than to open up networks or build systems to support CLECs as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Since 1996 the Bells have been fined $1.4 billion by the FCC and state regulators for violations which is less than 1 percent of their combined 2001 revenues. The Bells argue that number is actually a sign of progress since it could be much higher if they did absolutely nothing. Well hey, that's something. Clearly the Telecommunications Act didn't specify high enough fines to really force the Bells' hands.
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