Former FCC Chairman Hundt's Reply
October 11, 2000 1:22 AM Subscribe
Former FCC Chairman Hundt's Reply to Nader on Wired (featured in an ealier Metafilter Posting). Essentially the message is, we promised you competition on Radio/TV/Cable but, oops, we really just meant the Internet.
Uhm, hm. I think Hundt's using "Internet economy" as a buzzword without realizing something: we don't have an Internet economy. Look at the Nasdaq lately?
In any event, Hundt's reply was quite humorous, particularly when he expressed disdain for Nader's not blowing Bush away. Well, shoot, Bush hasn't talked about the net much... Gore has (and will continue to do so). He tried to turn it into something it wasn't which, as we know, is typical politics.
One thing mentioned was the big SBC buyout of Ameritech & PacBell. Since then, Ameritech has been under serious fire for inadequate response time to service calls and poor rates. Amazingly, things have gotten worse with them since SBC bought them out. And, when AT&T took over our local cable, they promised that prices wouldn't go up. In writing. Two weeks later, prices went up. "We're just delivering more packages consumers want." Same argument Hundt uses.
Gee, I thought all of these corporate mergers were supposed to give consumers more choices! ::cough:: Ralph's already got my vote.
posted by hijinx at 7:50 AM on October 11, 2000
In any event, Hundt's reply was quite humorous, particularly when he expressed disdain for Nader's not blowing Bush away. Well, shoot, Bush hasn't talked about the net much... Gore has (and will continue to do so). He tried to turn it into something it wasn't which, as we know, is typical politics.
One thing mentioned was the big SBC buyout of Ameritech & PacBell. Since then, Ameritech has been under serious fire for inadequate response time to service calls and poor rates. Amazingly, things have gotten worse with them since SBC bought them out. And, when AT&T took over our local cable, they promised that prices wouldn't go up. In writing. Two weeks later, prices went up. "We're just delivering more packages consumers want." Same argument Hundt uses.
Gee, I thought all of these corporate mergers were supposed to give consumers more choices! ::cough:: Ralph's already got my vote.
posted by hijinx at 7:50 AM on October 11, 2000
>Ameritech has been under serious fire for inadequate response time to service calls and poor rates.
Which had nothing to do with being bought out. It had everything to do with Ameritech having an unusually high turnover rate in their field service division.
As NPR correctly pointed out, the service problems were coincidental and would have happened whether Ameritech was bought by SBC or not.
posted by ethmar at 7:58 AM on October 11, 2000
Which had nothing to do with being bought out. It had everything to do with Ameritech having an unusually high turnover rate in their field service division.
As NPR correctly pointed out, the service problems were coincidental and would have happened whether Ameritech was bought by SBC or not.
posted by ethmar at 7:58 AM on October 11, 2000
>It had everything to do with Ameritech having an unusually high turnover rate in their field service division.
This is the company line. I won't buy it unless things improve in a relatively fair amount of time.
posted by hijinx at 8:13 AM on October 11, 2000
This is the company line. I won't buy it unless things improve in a relatively fair amount of time.
posted by hijinx at 8:13 AM on October 11, 2000
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"...never has any government in any country created such a spectacularly successful policy of competition, with such astoundingly powerful results measured by increased investment, increased job growth, increased productivity gains, and increased innovation."
Since when do "increased investment, increased job growth, increased productivity gains, and increased innovation" (all wonderful things in themselves) add up to a "spectacularly successful policy of competition"? I mean, I thought increased competition meant an increased number of competitors in the field. Silly me.
posted by leo at 1:55 AM on October 11, 2000