The government also cites previous cases in which telecommunications companies were forced to write code to assist government investigations.
For the year through November, the Merrill Lynch European high-yield bond index, of which telecommunications and media issues account for 60percentt, has declined by 17.5percentt.
For advocates of openness, the nightmare outlook is one in which telecommunications companies, allied with other corporate partners, seize control of the Internet and run it in a way that maximizes profits, rather than openness.
These concerns were heightened by the unusual structure of the U.S. broadband business, in which telecommunications companies often have local monopolies or duopolies, giving consumers little choice over their provider.
The plan could lead to higher fees for consumers on their telephone landlines because the commission also approved changes in the complex compensation system by which telecommunications companies pay one another for completing or carrying calls on one another's systems.
A1 Trading System for Spectrum F.C.C. officials are preparing rules that would create a trading system in which telecommunications companies of all kinds could bid for underused slivers of the spectrum that are already under the control of other companies.
