Ten Years Ago... Justices Decline Request to Keep Rules for Opening Phone Market

TEN YEAR'S AGO...

Justices Decline Request to Keep Rules for Opening Phone Market
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal 11/13/1996, AUTHOR: Edward Felsenthal]
The Supreme Court declined a request by the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate rules for opening the $90 billion local telephone market to competition. Several phone companies, including AT&T and MCI, had joined the FCC in asking the Supreme Court to lift a stay on the Commission's rules by the federal appeals court in St. Louis. The agency and the long distance phone companies argued that the stay was slowing the development of competition. The case now returns to the St. Louis court. FCC Chairman Reed Hundt does not expect the St. Louis court to rule in the FCC's favor, and then the FCC might have to again appeal to the Supreme Court.
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