House Republicans Press Ahead with Telecom Bill

[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeremy Pelofsky]
At the House Commerce Committee hearing on a proposed rewrite of the nation's telecom laws, Republicans said they would press ahead with draft legislation that would ease the path for telephone companies to enter the video business. Republicans pushed their revised legislation as a way to foster competition for video and Internet services as well as to promote innovation and boost the economy. They also noted that it was simply another draft that would likely be revised. Democrats charged the bill could hurt competition and consumers by permitting a single company to own cable and telephone networks in the same market. They also said it fails to set clear rules for consumer access to the Internet. "The draft before us undermines long-standing objectives of fostering localism, competition and diversity," said Michigan Rep. John Dingell, the top Democrat on the panel. "Rushing this one-sided draft forward will set back our long-term goals of accelerating broadband deployment and video competition."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-11-09T212450Z_01_FLE977059_RTRUKOC_0_US-TELECOMS-CONGRESS.xml&ar...

* Links to testimony at the hearing:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/11092005hearing1706/hearing.htm

* The Advance of Technology has Left the Law Behind"
[SOURCE: Chairman Joe Barton, House Commerce Committee press release]
Our nation's telephone laws are based upon the principles of common carriage and the belief that only incumbents can truly own the facilities that connect Americans. The notion behind America's cable laws is that competition doesn't exist, and since no competitive forces check the actions of a monopoly distributor of multichannel programming in many markets, that responsibility falls to government. That is what brings us here today. The statute no longer reflects the technological and competitive reality. Congress has a responsibility to update our communications laws.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/News/11092005_1715.htm

For more on this bill, see Benton's Telecom Legislation Tracker