Stevens Bears Down on Telecom Rewrite

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said that the committee would bear down and try to mark up a revise of the 1996 Telecommunications Act sometime after Easter. That was during a hearing Tuesday with financial analysts, who were arguing for clarity ASAP. Their mantra: Regulatory certainty, regulatory certainty, regulatory certainty. Issues like national video franchising, cable à la carte and network neutrality will need to be resolved to free up the capital markets, said financial analysts from companies including JP Morgan, Wachovia, UBS and Sanford Bernstein. "Especially video franchising," said Aryeh Bourkoff of UBS Investment Research. Clarity and certainty, agreed Bourkoff and Kevin Moore of Wachovia Securities, with the caveat that what action Washington takes be guided by a "light regulatory touch" and the admonition: "First do no harm." Mandating "network neutrality," not allowing cable and other networks to charge third parties more for faster Internet-access speeds, is not in the regulatory "light touch" category. Sanford Bernstein's Craig Moffett said that "network neutrality" would have the unintended consequence of further "souring Wall Street's taste for broadband-infrastructure investments."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6315997?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
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* Street Warns Congress Not To Mandate 'Net Neutrality'
http://news.morningstar.com/news/DJ/M03/D14/200603141859DOWJONESDJONLINE000958.html?Cat=WashWire