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Argentine leader drops phone-cable competition(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina_Argentina's president made a major concession Monday as she seeks votes for a proposed media law, saying telephone companies should not be allowed to compete for television customers after all. Critics said allowing the phone companies in would simply substitute one monopoly with another, by letting Telecom Argentina package the "triple play" of television, Internet access and phone service for everyone, while limiting cable TV companies _ currently dominated by Grupo Clarin _ to no more than a third of Argentine homes. "At least they have admitted that there is a monopoly in the Argentine Republic," Fernandez said acidly. She said the concession should "eliminate any doubt that lawmakers could have had in the sense that perhaps the presence of the phone companies could generate a new monopoly." The phone clause was roundly criticized by lawmakers and probably wouldn't have passed anyway. Deputy Sylvia Vazquez, a key supporter of the media law, had argued that telephone companies shouldn't compete for TV screens until a separate antitrust law regulates them as well. "The law says it seeks to deconcentrate, demonopolize. However, if left as it is, the following will occur: Clarin will survive, but as a much smaller company. Much bigger telephone companies will enter the market. And all the small players will sell to them, rather than be destroyed. The result will be a great concentration," Henoch Aguiar, a former Argentine communications secretary, told The Associated Press before the president conceded the point on Monday. One reporter asked whether Fernandez's husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, had met with potential investors to discuss buying into the telephone company. She dismissed the question as an effort to plant doubts about the law. Fernandez said her aim was to build consensus for the effort to replace a hated dictatorship-era law and lay down a regulatory framework that will preserve a diversity of opinions on television, radio and other digital communications. "My proposal is simply to give Argentine society a legal instrument for the media industry, to make it possible that they listen to the voices of everyone and demonopolize the sector," she said. "This is an opportunity that should not be frustrated." (c) 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |