] The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote today
] to uphold a strong role for states to regulate local
] telephone service, sources said yesterday, a system that
] has led to recent price wars between the major regional
] phone giants and their rivals. ]
] The vote would be a defeat for the more deregulatory
] agenda of FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, and for the
] former Bell local telephone monopolies that lobbied the
] FCC relentlessly during the past year to abandon rules
] that require them to lease their networks to rivals at
] discounted rates set by the states.