Congress is poised to make a number of critical yet irreversible decisions this year and next that will shape our communications future for decades to come. How Congress addresses these pressing issues, and the priority it puts on ensuring that communications choices and consumer voices will expand, could well be some of the most important decisions in a generation. Public interest advocates and the constituencies they represent need to follow and lend their voices to these important debates.
These decisions, perhaps some of the most important communications policy decisions in a decade, will have a very direct impact on our economy, our livelihood, our ability to innovate, and our time honored values of localism, diversity, and consumer choice.
Key Issues Could Put Consumers In Control of Their Communications Future:
Congress has an important opportunity to unleash unprecedented public interest benefits by answering a number of key policy questions that will determine if, when, and how the public will take advantage of the full promise and potential of our communications landscape.
Legislation to address:
Media effected:
Decisions will determine:
The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act
Broadcast, cable and satellite television
How consumers benefit from the switch to digital television. Cable channel choice. Public interest obligations and license renewals for digital TV broadcasters. See these resources: Getting to February 2009: Outstanding DTV Transition Issues
Universal service modernization
Traditional telephone service, wireless phone and new Internet telephone services (VoIP)
How our time-honored commitment to make telephone service is updated in the face of changes in the way consumers use communications.
Telecommunications policy reform
Television, telephone, Internet
How will regulators treat Internet Protocol television and telephony. How should video franchises be awarded. E-911 service for Internet telephone subscribers. Whether the openness of the Internet will be preserved and extended in the broadband world. Community broadband options.
In all of these legislative debates, Congress will set the course for whether:
1) the public interest continues to be a central focus of communications policy,
2) allowing innovation to flourish, competition to thrive and investment to follow will be confused with broad deregulation and concentrating communications choices in the hands of a few, and
3) media choices and consumer voices will expand in the digital age.
Benton’s Guide: A Front Row View Into The Debate
As Congress undertakes this sweeping rewrite of our telecommunications laws, the Benton Foundation is launching this new one-stop online resource to give advocates, academics, policymakers, and others the tools they need to stay abreast of the debate.
This is the second major rewrite of telecommunications Act in 70 years. As Congress debated the last major rewrite—the 1996 Telecom Act—the Benton Foundation played a central role in helping the public keep track of what was happening, why it mattered, and what it meant.
Tools For Tracking Telcom Talk
This non-partisan fact-filled Benton resource is intended to keep the public informed again. It includes up-to-date:
- Summaries of key bills
- A guide to what public interest and industry groups are saying
- Links to the reports that Congress will rely upon and
- The stories that cover it all
Tools To Stay On Top As the Stories Break:
To stay abreast of the headlines as they break, we also recommend signing up for the Benton Foundation’s Headlines news service for a daily feed of the news that is driving these debates. (Sign up here)
Additional Resources:
Telecommunications Act: Competition, Innovation, and Reform (A report from the Congressional Research Service)
The Fallout From the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Unintended Consequences and Lessons Learned (Common Cause Study)
The Key Member’s of Congress Making the Decisions
The Hill staff in the driver’s seat