Coalition member and long time public interest champion Gigi Sohn from Public Knowledge made the following post today on the PK website. Explaining how and why abuse of the special access market is more than a business issue, Gigi reminds us all that at the end of the day it is consumers who are left footing the bill and paying higher rates to line the pockets of giant telephone companies.

by Gigi Sohn on June 23, 2009 -

There is a lot of talk and concern these days in the halls of Congress and at both the FCC and the FTC about how to promote greater broadband and wireless phone competition. Last week, the battle over whether wireless operators should have exclusive handset deals, a la AT&T and the iPhone and Sprint and the Palm Pre heated up, as the Senate held 2 hearings on the topic, and acting Chairman Copps promised a proceeding on the implications of the practice for consumers and small wireless carriers (hint: bad for both).

Yesterday, competitive wireless and wireline phone and Internet service providers, large corporate users of telecommunications (e.g., car companies, insurance companies, banks and retailers), higher education institutions and public interest groups like Public Knowledge, Media Access Project and the New America Foundation joined together in a new coalition (No ChokePoints.org) to address another “choke point” in our telecommunications system: “special access.” Special access circuits are the high speed digital lines that are controlled (surprise, surprise) by the 3 remaining Bell operating companies, AT&T, Verizon and Qwest. Together, the first 2 control 90% of the special access market in the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »