With a proposed Bell broadband data relief bill on the legislative fast track in the House, competitive carriers, their lobbyists and consumer groups joined together to form the Voices for Choices Coalition to stop it.
The coalition is comprised of a dozen organizations, including lobbying powerhouses the Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) (www.comptel.org), the Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS) (www.alts.org), the Association of Communications Enterprises (ASCENT) (www.ascent.org), and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) (www.naruc.org).
Largely representing the interests of the nation’s competitive carriers, the coalition specifically is fighting against the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act, which was re-introduced Tuesday by original sponsors Congressmen W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, and John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking Democrat on the committee.
Rep. Tauzin promises to move the item forward quickly. The proposed bill is scheduled for a Commerce Committee hearing today and House telecom subcommittee debate tomorrow.
“This piece of legislation has the potential to decimate our industry,” said John D. Windhausen Jr., president of ALTS.
During the Voices for Choices Coalition press conference in Washington yesterday, some coalition members dubbed the proposed bill the ‘Baby Bell Bill’, referencing the proposal’s attempts to give the Bell companies the power to bypass the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Other coalition members also mocked the proposed bill.
“The only thing that this legislation has to do with broadband is its title,” said H. Russell Frisby Jr., president of CompTel. “The ‘Tauzin-Dingell Broadband Derailment Act,’ which is what it should be called, would stifle” any competitive progress that’s already been made.
Frisby said that everything from basic phone service to super-fast Internet access flows over the last mile, which is still largely controlled by the Bells. Being given broadband data relief will allow the Bells to bypass Section 271 requirements contained in the Telecom Act and lessen the Bells’ incentives to open up their local networks, he said.
In turn, according to Ernest B. Kelly III, president of ASCENT, the Tauzin-Dingell bill would be most devastating to competition by exempting the Bells from the resale and unbundling aspects of the Telecom Act.
But Gary Lytle, interim president and CEO of the U.S. Telecom Association (USTA) (www.usta.org), which lobbies Congress on behalf of the Bells, says that the Tauzin-Dingell bill would lift regulations on Internet services, Internet access and high-speed data services, “providing a much-needed boost to our nation’s economy.”
Internet service providers don’t buy that argument.
“We are horrified by the re-introduction of so-called broadband relief legislation,” said Steve Mossbrook, president of the Wyoming ISP Association and president of Wyoming.com (www.wyoming.com). “The ISP industry has led the way in bringing Internet access and services to consumers across the country, especially in the more rural and underserved areas deserted by the RBOCs. This legislation will unfortunately have exactly the opposite result of what it purports to achieve … [and] will succeed only in putting competition out of business.”
The Bells, however, say they need this broadband relief bill approved in order to deploy advanced services, such as DSL.
Au contraire, say members of the Voices for Choices coalition, who claim that the Bell’s all along have been able to deploy such services, they’ve just opted against it.
A spokesman for Tauzin’s office said the coalition members have had months to prepare for this battle because the congressman has said all along that he would work hard to press this proposal forward. If approved by the full House, the proposed measure also would need approval from the Senate.
