Senators Upset with Powell's Comments
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 7/17/2002 5:42:00 AM
Two key Senators said Tuesday that they were disappointed that Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell believes a Baby Bell phone company might be allowed to merge with troubled long-distance carrier WorldCom Inc.
In a letter to Powell, Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) said they did not believe WorldCom's financial problems justified a merger with a Bell company.
'We do not believe such consolidation furthers the goals of the Telecommunications Act of 1996,' the lawmakers said in a two-page letter. Kohl and DeWine head the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition and Business and Consumer Rights.
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal quoted Powell as saying that the telecommunications sector was in 'utter crisis' and indicating that WorldCom's condition might allow it to merge with a Baby Bell -- a combination former FCC chairman Reed Hundt once called 'unthinkable.'
At a press briefing Tuesday, Powell said his suggestion that a WorldCom-Baby Bell merger was possible was not an attempt to break new ground in terms of policy.
He added that Qwest Communications International Inc. merged with U S West Inc. and Bell Atlantic Corp. merged with GTE Corp. in deals that brought together local and long-distance companies to some extent.
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