New Telecom Bill Spurs Industry Split

[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
On Thursday, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced the Digital Age Communications Act to update the nation’s telecom laws and the bill gained quick reaction. The key controversy is over the universal service fund; the bulk of the USF subsidizes telephone service in rural areas. The Baby Bells want to cap the size of the fund and change the rules for how money for it is raised. Rural companies -- including more than 1,000 smaller members of U.S. Telecom -- are wary of big changes. Sen DeMint's bill would make dramatic changes to existing telecom law. The legislation would replace prescriptive FCC regulatory rules with a competition-oriented, quasi-antitrust agency. Rural carriers are not pleased with the DeMint bill. In addition to capping the USF at $3.65 billion -- about half its current $7 billion level, the bill would direct the FCC to devise a system of performance-based block grants to states. Sen DeMint's bill is an almost word-for-word replication of the Digital Age Communications Act, model legislation drafted by the Progress and Freedom Foundation -- a free market-oriented think tank. Sen DeMint's bill could force a general rethinking of telecom legislation. "It is going to help shift the debate to where it should be, a new act that is centered around whether competition in the marketplace actually exists," said Randolph May, PFF's director of communications policy studies.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-XHPX1134767108404.html

* USTelecom Expresses Grave Concerns with DeMint Telecom Legislation
http://www.ustelecom.org/news_releases.php?urh=home.news.nr2005_1216

* PFF Leaders Praise DeMint Telecom Bill
http://www.pff.org/news/news/2005/121505demint.html

* Track the bill's progress at:
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/939