Welcome and Opening Thoughts

Lawrence J. Spiwak

President

The Phoenix Center

2005 Phoenix Center Annual U.S. Telecoms Symposium

December 1, 2005 • Washington, D.C.

What’s New at the Phoenix Center…

Phoenix Center Papers:

Phoenix Center Policy Paper No. 21: Competition After Unbundling: Entry, Industry Structure and Convergence

Phoenix Center Policy Paper No. 22: The Consumer Welfare Cost of Cable “Build-out” Rules

Phoenix Center Policy Paper No. 23: The Impact of Video Service Regulation on the Construction of Broadband Networks to Low-Income Households

Phoenix Center Policy Bulletin No. 12: Franchise Fee Revenues After Video Competition: The “Competition

Dividend” for Local Governments

What’s New at the Phoenix Center…

Academic Publications:

Set It and Forget It? Market Power and the Consequences of Premature Deregulation in Telecommunications Markets, 1 NYU Journal of Law & Business 675 (Summer 2005).

The Economics of Build-out Rules in Cable Television, Hastings Communications and Entertainment (Comm/Ent) Law Journal (forthcoming Winter 2006).

American Bar Association’s Antitrust Telecom Handbook (June 2005).

What’s New at the Phoenix Center… Examples of Phoenix Center Staff Presentations in 2005:

Pike and Fisher Broadband Conference

National Consumers League Cable Conference (Washington)

National Consumers League Cable Conference (Los Angeles)

Americans For Tax Reform Wednesday Meetings

VON

Interconnection Summit – Prague

Conservative Political Action Committee Annual Meeting

Citizens Against Government Waste

MARC

MACRUC

US Telecom Conference

NATOA

FCC Consumer Advisory Committee Conference

NCSL

What’s New at the Phoenix Center…

Phoenix Center Sponsored Events: Congressional Briefing with keynote address by

Rep. Marsha Blackburn

NARUC Breakfast Briefing – NARUC Summer Meeting, Austin

NARUC Breakfast Briefing – NARUC Annual Meeting, Palm Springs

Annual Phoenix Center State Educational Retreat

Conference Theme: The New Frontier… 2005 will go down as a landmark year

Embracement of “facilities-based/inter-modal competition” No more unbundling No more independent IXCs Emergence of managed VoIP as real competitive substitute Technology is rapidly turning “single use networks” into

“multi-use” networks

What will the structure of this market look like and will we be happy with the results?

Yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Industry still characterized by high fixed and sunk costs “Policy-relevant” barriers to entry remain. Need for rigorous and cohesive analysis remains