Consumer Group Urges Scrutiny and Asks "What are the Consumer Benefits?"
Washington, D.C. -- October 5, 1999 -- Samuel A. Simon, Chairman of the Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC), issued the following statement concerning the announced proposed merger between MCI/WorldCom and Sprint.
"We believe the proposed merger between MCI/WorldCom and Sprint raises a bright red flag and warrants the closest scrutiny by all regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over each aspect of the merger. What are the consumer benefits? The long distance market today is essentially an oligopoly, with three major carriers having 80% of the market. It will now become a duopoly. This merger appears to take a competitor out of the market, not add a new one to any market. It will also combine two of the largest Internet backbone providers, reducing what little competition exists in that market. The burden is on MCI/WorldCom and Sprint to demonstrate how consumers, especially residential long distance and Internet users, will benefit from this merger."
The Telecommunications Research and Action Center is a 20 year old Washington, DC based consumer group that educates and advocates for the interests of residential and small business telephone consumers. It is the publisher of TeleTips(sm), which compares long distance rates for residential and small business consumers. TRAC sponsors an Internet http://www.trac.org/ that allows users to do real time rate comparisons for long distance service.
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