It’s understandable, as we now read in post-telecom bill interviews with U.S. District Judge Harold Greene, that the seven regional Bell telephone companies under his purview since the 1984 AT&T Corp. breakup still believe this smallish man of giant stature had it in for them from the get-go.
The House telecom reform bill underwent a dramatic transformation after being reported out of committee last May when Baby Bells cried foul. Uncle Newtie made it right, though. It’s the law of the land now.
You see, for Greene, the 1982 AT&T-Justice Department consent decree that led to the divestiture was simply a matter of enforcing the law-a concept the Bells never really grasped. As long as Bells kept their ironclad grip on local exchange telephone monopolies around the country and could leverage that bottleneck control to subvert competition, Greene kept Bells out of manufacturing, long distance and information services.
It was, after all, an antitrust action that busted Ma Bell.
Competition scares the Bells. They’ve never known it; don’t particularly want to know it, and have yet to show they can be good at it.
In the courtroom, well-paid Bell lawyers were no match for Greene. It was never a clash of legal intellect, mind you. The Bell game was tireless, uninspired persistence.
This seemed to amaze, at times anger, and eventually bore Greene. Nothing changed since the big bang; the Bells are monopolies 12 years later.
The Bells are big players in wireless because of their economic might. It has little to do with ingenuity, true grit or marketing savvy.
That the Bells characterize Greene as a telecom czar unwilling to give up his power could not be further from the truth. As if he cares what they think.
Greene was sick of the case, wanted out and now appears delighted-though a tad leery-of ceding responsibility to the Federal Communications Commission.
And who can blame him? The FCC doesn’t have the money to implement the legislation, but has little problem raising billions for the rest of federal government.
Greene, more than anything, confounded and frustrated the Bells because he spoke in a language foreign to them and the rest of official Washington: plain English. No code. No crypt. No hidden agendas. No trap doors.
A wisecrack here and there, unassuming and friendly. Never nasty. He stuck to the law and stood up to the Bells, towering over them just as the great stone obelisk stands dutiful guard over the nation’s capital.
It hasn’t been easy bein’ Greene.
