THE FEAR FACTOR

Fear, as it turns out, can be an effective motivator. Fear is what keeps batters from digging in at the plate, husbands from forgetting their anniversaries and writers from lipping off to their editors. (Well, some writers.) Fear is such an effective tool that it should be put to better use by the government in its dealings with incumbent carriers. The industry watchdog Voices for Choices estimates the Bell companies have paid nearly $2 billion in fines since 1996 for a variety of offenses. That's a lot of money for such a short timeframe. The Bells complain, with some justification, that there are too many performance metrics for them to monitor, any one of which can trigger a fine. But Congress is so concerned about what it perceives as the incumbents' wanton disregard of the Telecom Act that it wants to raise the FCC's fining authority to $10 million per incident. Good thought, but it's not nearly enough. They need to raise the fines to a level sure to get the attention of Messrs. Ackerman, Notebaert, Seidenberg and Whitacre. $100 million per incident sounds about right, but make it $1 billion if necessary. Congress should also follow the example of state drivers license authorities and set a maximum number of violations before an incumbent is stripped of its 271 authority. That would surely get the attention of the aforementioned CEOs, given what it cost to gain those approvals — not to mention the attention of the boards and shareholders to whom they answer.