Just because we have bad regs at the local level is no reason to kick it up to the state level — a Bell stomping ground. The Bells’ idea of competition is lobbying lawmakers to saddle their competitors with the same regs they labor under — never to overturn the regs altogether.
Think of it this way, the Bells have sunk cost in lobbyists and lawyers and they are not going to move away from that model. Consequently, the Bells will define for the Utility Commission what constitutes acceptable service quite apart from what consumers want and then play the odds.
Example — if the new added Bell services are so great they should be stand alone — if I only want DSL or IPTV from Bell South, I should be able to buy that alone without a dial-tone landline. One is not technologically dependent on the other; it is like selling a car with mandatory “rust proofing.” Yet somehow I doubt that North Carolina Utilities Commission will be mandating an a la carte menu from the Bells.
And if the Bells don’t like such service mandates, then the Bells should actually do something to end them. But that will never, ever happen. They have their niche — which is a heavily regulated, quasi-public, pseudo-private cash machine.
With brain ninjas.
