From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 08:23:08 -0800 (PST)
To: declan@well.com
Subject: Re: Babble about universal service
Message-ID: <3.0b36.32.19961114110638.0074df70@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 05:43 AM 8/8/96 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote:

>(My objections to universal service are perhaps not surprising. It
>devolves more power into the hands of the DC bureaucrats such as the FCC,
>and provides a slippery slope on which we can slide down towards more and
>more government regulation. By concentrating regulatory authority in the
>Federal government, it also makes decisions more subsceptible to
>special-interest lobbying and political patronage. But I recall Ronda has
>been arguing for universal service for some time now, including on the
>netizens mailing list.)

It also lets the Feds say, "You can't have something until everyone has
it."  Besides we have universal service right now (in America anyway).
Much more universal service than the Feds would have provided with decades
of bureaucratic futzing around.  Anyone in the US who wants to get wired
can do so for very little money.  All it takes is desire.  The government
can't provide the desire.

  

DCF