Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Study: 1996 Telecom Act Spurs $267B In Investment

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 11:42:56 -0400

Study: 1996 Telecom Act Spurs $267B In Investment

Jul 01, 2003

Larry Spiwak readily admits that he doesn't have a magic pill solution for
everything that ails the telecom industry. However, Spiwak, president of
Washington, D.C.-based think-tank The Phoenix-Center for Advanced Legal & Economic
Public Policy Studies, does believe the argument put forth by many in the industry
that the 1996 Telecom Act is a failure because it didn't spur telecom investment
is ailing of itself. The organization recently published the study "The Truth
About Telecommunications Investment." The report says that the Telecom Act has
generated $267 billion in additional investment since its passage.

"You have all of this sort of misinformation [about the 1996 Act and telecom
investment] floating around Washington, D.C.," Spiwak told Communications Today.
"What we would like to say is 'Here are the numbers, go and look at them
yourself.' That is what we did." The study said despite recent declines in
investment in the industry--caused in part by the near total collapse of
facilities-based CLECs--that telecom investment remains well above historic
levels.  From 1980 to 1995, investment by telecom firms grew at an annual rate of
2.8 percent. After the 1996 Act, telecom investment has grown at an average annual
rate of 22.3 percent, according to the study. The report, based on figures from
the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, said government data "provides no support"
for the claim that the 1996 Act reduced investment by telecommunications firms.

Spiwak said a turn in the economy as well as policy-makers taking a more realistic
view of the business both would help the telecom industry turn around.  "The
economy drives telecom investment and not the other way around," Spiwak said. "The
argument that infrastructure will fuel the economy is just not true."

http://search.pbimedia.com/search97cgi/s97_cgi?action=View&VdkVgwKey=%2E%2E%2Fdocuments%2Farchive%2Fct%2Fct07010301%2Ehtml&DocOffset=1&Collection=archive&&ViewTemplate=new_tweb_view_ct.hts

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/ySSFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/