[TWIAR] Fw: [media-news] FCC rules slow progress

Wed, 2 Jan 2002 17:10:19 -0800

----- Original Message -----
From: "George Antunes" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 10:13 AM
Subject: [media-news] FCC rules slow progress

[The RBOCs have been pressing Congress to legislate a relaxation of telco
broadband rules in spite of their local loop monopoly status. The idea is
to "make them more like cable companies which do not have extensive
broadband regulations."  Most consumer organization are pressing Congress
to leave telco regs as they are and ,instead, extend a regulatory regime to
cable broadband services.  The result either way would be greater parity in
the cable and telco regulatory environment for broadband.]

Page 8A

FCC rules slow progress
By Randolph J. May
USA Today

01/02/02

When Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, it said it
intended to provide ''a pro-competitive and deregulatory'' framework, one
designed to speed the deployment of advanced communications services.
Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has strayed too
far from Congress' vision, and the American consumer has been the loser.

Nowhere has the FCC's pro-regulatory bent been more out of step with
today's realities than in its treatment of high-speed Internet connections
currently used by little more than 10% of American households. The FCC
regulates broadband connections offered by phone companies under
essentially the same intrusive regime it developed decades ago for ordinary
phone service.

The application of monopoly-era regulations to broadband is slowing
much-needed investment by the phone companies. With the cable companies
currently serving more than 70% of the residential ''broadband'' market, no
one really claims that the phone companies dominate this new market.

Perhaps the FCC finally will reverse course. FCC Chairman Michael Powell
recently said that widespread deployment of broadband is ''the central
communications policy objective today.'' It will, he said, ''stimulate
economic activity'' and ''improve national productivity.'' Recognizing the
huge investment required to build out new broadband networks, Powell said
that ''broadband service should exist in a minimally regulated space'' with
competitive platforms -- cable, satellite, wireless, telephone -- available
to the consumer.

As for the big mergers confronting the FCC -- EchoStar/Hughes,
AT&T/Comcast, and who knows what else -- they likely represent predictable
responses to today's rapidly changing business and technological
environment. These firms are scrambling to achieve economies of scale
needed to provide an integrated array of services: video, voice and
Internet access. What is most important to consumers is whether we have
competitive broadband platforms, not whether we have one less cable or
satellite firm.

Shortly before assuming the chairmanship, Powell said that the FCC's
''bureaucratic process is too slow to respond to the challenges of Internet
time.'' This should be the year the FCC catches up with Internet time.

-------------
Randolph J. May is senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation in
Washington, D.C. The views expressed are his own. Key to competition is
greater access to broadband connections.

=======================================================
George Antunes Voice: 713-743-3923
Political Science Dept Fax: 713-743-3927
University of Houston Internet: [email protected]
Houston, TX 77204 or [email protected]

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