PUCO SAYS "FORGET IT", CHAS SAYS "YES"

With this little election on my mind, I never got around to reporting the PUCO's decision on the SBC/AT&T merger case and the consumer proposals discussed here last Thursday. Long story short, on Friday morning the PUCO gave its blessing to the companies' joint operations in Ohio and declined to impose any of the conditions requested by consumer intervenors, except to require SBC (which will now be called AT&T) to offer "stand-alone" DSL service. Bummer. But not necessarily the last word on the subject since, as you may have heard, there's an election for Governor coming up... and the Governor appoints the PUCO.

If you're a true rootin-tootin policy geek, here's the download link for the actual decision (a looong pdf file). For extra points, see how long it takes you to find where they quote me.

The good news is that Chas Rich of NEO babble has agreed to my proposal for a Meet The Bloggers debate on the subject. I've promised to buy the coffee, but he apparently expects me to also "hand him his lunch" or something. Maybe we'll just split a sandwich. Details to follow.