John B. Breaux: “for more than 10 years the Congress has deferred to Federal courts on making and shaping telecommunications policy.…”

“for more than 10 years the Congress has deferred to Federal courts on making and shaping telecommunications policy. Antitrust law intended to remedy anticompetitive practices when AT&T dominated all facets of America's telecommunications services is the basis of court controlled communications policy. The resulting breakup of AT&T in 1983-84 under Judge Greene's modified final judgment is still the policy basis for keeping the brakes on the future development of this critical industry: Telecommunications is the engine of America's continuing race into the information age. Technical complexities and the massive scale of economic returns for potential competitors in the industry have made it difficult to arrive at any industry-led agreement on fair and just terms for bringing full competition to reality. Certainly such an agreement would simplify congressional efforts to unleash the industry from Federal court edicts so that the benefits of open competition will bring new and lower cost services, increased employment, and a continually improved telecommunications infrastructure. Right now, Mr. President, between 50 and 65 percent of all U.S. jobs involve information processing, goods, or services; 90 percent of jobs created over the last 10 years were information related. But there is more to come if we in the Congress can fashion reasonable legislation for evenhanded treatment of potential major competitors.”