This Chronicle article reports on the resignation of SBC Communications Inc. President William Daley.
San Antonio-based SBC appointed 51-year-old Forrest Miller, a long-time telecom industry veteran, to succeed Mr. Daley as head of the company’s public affairs and corporate planning functions. However, SBC announced that it is not planning to appoint a new president.
A former Commerce Secretary under President Clinton, chairman of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, and the son of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, Mr. Daley, 55, had been hired in 2001 to advance SBC’s regulatory agenda and was part of a campaign to improve the company’s strained relations with Midwest regulators.
Mr. Daley’s resignation comes as SBC and other local phone giants are in the middle of a volatile period of political activity over the future of access to local phone systems. SBC officials have been trying to free themselves from federal regulations that force them to lease access to their networks to rivals such as AT&T Corp. and MCI Inc. at artificially low rates. Competitors of SBC and other regional telecoms say the federal rules are fair and provide the only method of ensuring competition in local phone markets.
SBC and the other Bells suffered a serious regulatory defeat late last year when the Federal Communications Commission decided to leave wholesale leasing regulations essentially unchanged. Mr. Daley had led SBC’s regulatory lobbying effort in regard to that FCC matter.