If the mergers go through,we will be able to make our own choices, without the clumsy interventions of politicians, judges, and bureaucrats.

Government appeal is necessary to preserve the "integrity of the auction process" by which the telecommunicationslicenses were assigned; the primary reason for the appeal is money.

The Supreme Court, if it chooses to rule on the FCC's appeal, should affirm a circuit court's decision to return the licenses to NextWave.

F. Duane Ackerman, chairman and chief executive officer of BellSouth Corporation, assesses the future of telecommunications reform in the United States.