The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has proposed re-regulation of the business data services (BDS) market, with price-cuts in markets deemed “non-competitive” as the primary tool. The vast majority of BDS is sold to wireline, wireless, and cable networks and to large enterprises. The provision of BDS requires significant capital investment by both incumbents and their competitors.
Until recently, the FCC and commenters in this proceeding have focused on the question of “how many competitors does it take to discipline an incumbent’s prices,” but ignored the question of “what happens to competitors after a mandated price cut?” That has changed in the last few weeks, since numerous competitive fiber providers (CFPs) have pointed out that any attempt to capture the incumbent will also capture them.
