House Hearing Takes Up Issues in Telecommunications Competition

On Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing to examine telecommunications competition issues that have impacted national broadband deployment over the last decade. Though the United States was first in the world in broadband deployment in 2000, the country has been sliding down international broadband rankings ever since. Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) chaired the meeting noting, "Several pressing competition issues, including pole attachment rates, interconnection issues, number porting timeframes, copper wire retirement, and forbearance legislation, are before the Subcommittee today. And each of these issues, if resolved correctly, can help promote greater broadband deployment, speeds, and consumer choice."

The meeting was also a formal legislative hearing on the Protecting Consumers through Proper Forbearance Procedures Act (HR 3914), a bill offered by House Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and Chairman Markey addressing forbearance issues. The bill was designed to make it more difficult for telephone carriers to obtain deregulation from the Federal Communications Commission by ensuring that the carriers' petitions for deregulation are not automatically approved after 15 months simply because the FCC failed to deny them through inaction or a tie vote deadlock. Cathy Avgiris, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager for voice services, endorsed HR 3914, saying "We ... believe there should be no regulatory forbearance by default.". Comcast is the fourth-largest residential local phone company in the United States, serving 5 million subscribers. Many FCC regulations -- including the right of new entrants to interconnect with phone incumbents and the ability of consumers to retain their phone numbers when leaving incumbents -- are critical to Comcast's continued success as a voice provider. Jonathan Banks, senior vice president of law for the US Telecom Association, a trade group that includes AT&T and Verizon, endorsed the current law, saying it required the FCC to respond to changes in the market.