FCC approves telecom deals

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved the Verizon/MCI and SBC/AT&T mergers, but the approval comes with conditions. Verizon and SBC must offer DSL as a stand-alone service, without requiring customers to purchase local phone service, for two years. The FCC also extended pricing caps for high-volume lines and required Verizon and SBC to freeze certain network rates for 30 months.

For more on the ruling:
- see this Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.)
- check out this Electronic Engineering Times article