Free to Compete is designed to educate consumers on the invaluable role competition plays in bringing innovative technologies and services to the marketplace.  This website will enable you to reach out to your representatives in Congress and voice your support for the preservation of a vibrant competitive communications marketplace.

Leading competitive communications service providers have released an independent economic study demonstrating that, if Verizon's petitions for forbearance are granted, there would be a $210 million increase in retail telecommunications expenditures in the Providence and Virginia Beach MSAs annually, including a $66 annual increase in residential household bills. Click here to access the complete study. 

Two days before the Federal Communications Commission was set to issue a decision on requests by Verizon Communications to remove network unbundling requirements enacted by Congress in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the Bell company withdrew its petitions.  Specifically, Verizon sought relief from having to provide competitive carriers with access to its facilities in Rhode Island and Virginia Beach.    

For the past year, competitive carriers that rely on Verizon's facilities to serve their customers have spent a tremendous amount of time and money fighting Verizon's forbearance petitions so that millions of consumers in Rhode Island and Virginia Beach would continue to have a choice in service providers.  Is this the best use of resources?