FCC Chmn. Powell is uncomfortable with ownership caps when their ...

let some go it shouldn’t,” he said in answer to question. Furthermore, “once it’s on the books, it takes forever to get it off” even if it’s obviously outdated. He said, for example, that 35% national ownership cap for broadcasters was 30 years old and conditions had changed since it was adopted. Antitrust process is better deterrent for anticompetitive behavior, he said. In answer to another question, Powell said that in general he believed “if you can’t prove a reason to continue a rule, it shouldn’t stay.” He said he didn’t buy “it does no harm” argument. In speech to institutional investors and others attending dinner, Powell said he was tired of “hand-wringing” over success of Telecom Act, still firmly believed in market over regulation to stimulate new services and wondered whether oligopolies were as bad as monopolies. He said he thought concern about effectiveness of Telecom Act was based on “exaggerated expectations.” When “bottom fell out” recently in CLEC business, blame was placed on Act instead of looking at fallacy of “Field of Dreams approach” taken by new entrants and investors, he said. They assumed that if they built something, “they will come” and threw money at startups, Powell said. But sometimes people “sniff it and go home.” Regulatory intervention isn’t answer, he said. “Way too many companies seek regulatory changes rather than using that same energy in the market.” He said he believed there was role for enforcement but “only where there’s clear evidence of abusive control.” There’s no such thing as natural monopoly, “but I'm not sure there’s not a natural oligopoly,” Powell said. If there’s heavy concentration of 3 or 4 companies, “is that okay or does there have to be a place for the small guy?” He said “my sympathies say yes” but then he looked at what happened when Wal- Mart came to rural America: “We lost something when we couldn’t go to the corner drug store but it wasn’t prices or choice.”