Inouye: Will Verizon Be the Next to Merge?
Congress has a “responsibility to the nation” to examine big monopolies’ impact on consumers, Senate Commerce Committee Co-Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii) said Thurs. at a Quello symposium lunch. Inouye voiced worry at recent Bell mergers, and suggested others could be coming: “I remember when we created 7 Baby Bells. I don’t know how many we'll have a year from now.”
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The committee is studying this activity, Inouye said: “In one breath we said we wanted competition, and now we have a multitude of organizations and entities providing competition. But now we find these organizations merging. One day you have a Baby Bell, the next day you don’t.” He said Verizon could be the next company to merge, saying he'd heard “rumors” but declining to be more specific.
At issue: whether to “allow a regrowth of consolidation that leads to domination by entities,” Chmn. Stevens (R- Alaska) told reporters after the lunch. He hopes to have a hearing on AT&T plans to buy BellSouth, but hasn’t scheduled it yet because “they're in process at the FCC,” he said. A key concern is “entities that monopolize sports and then… merge,” Stevens said. “The FCC has to address this issue,” Stevens said, adding that he and Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) have written to the FCC asking it to examine cable’s rules on access to sports programming in the context of the Time Warner-Comcast purchase of Adelphia.
Watching sports is “an American way of life,” Inouye said, urging sports programming be widely available. Stevens said local events should be aired for disabled fans who can’t make games. “If they [companies] get exclusive rights for this, to me they shouldn’t have any rights at all,” Stevens said. He also said the committee would devise a provision to mandate decency ratings of sports programming.
The committee hasn’t agreed on the telecom bill, but work is underway, Stevens and Inouye said. Stevens hopes to decide on the number of titles in the bill after the Easter recess, he said. Neither senator would comment on the video bill the House Telecom Subcommittee passed Wed. (CD April 6 p1) because they hadn’t had time to study it, they said.
But Stevens wouldn’t mind if a House bill is the core of the telecom package sent to conference, he said. “We intend to confer with the House bill,” he said. Of greater concern is the dwindling number of days - 40 - to get floor time to pass the measure in both chambers, Stevens said: “We're not going to be able to spend days on the floor,” he said. The goal is to reach consensus before reaching the floor, meaning long days for staff, he said.
“We have one advantage -- we can work together,” Inouye said of his close ties with Stevens. Neither has ever delayed the other’s bills, and while they may disagree they keep talking, Inouye said. He said he’s anxious that the bill adequately protect consumers, particularly in rural areas and on tribal lands, who may need friends on the Hill. “Some of you will be screaming, others will be smiling” when the Senate bill is introduced, he said.