Today's Tunney Act Hearing ... Be Hopeful, But Keep Your Expectations In Check

Good luck to the competitors moving forward with today's Tunney Act hearing on the SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI mergers. Like many, we have been watching this one pretty closely, and we sincerely commend the creative efforts and hard work of the proponents.

Regretfully and unfortunately, even though we agree wholeheartedly with the merits of the competitive cause, our expectations on the ultimate result are very, very low.

We all like to use the rallying cry of the "rule of law" as a basis for why we believe we should be treated fairly. But as to fairness, the rule of law only guarantees judicial process, not justice. The district court has provided a lot of process. We don't, however, expect any justice.