Boucher: Three Telecom Issues To Rule Early Debate

BOUCHER: THREE TELECOM ISSUES TO RULE EARLY DEBATE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA) says three telecom issues will dominate the early debate in the new Congress, topped by network neutrality, local governments offering competitive telecommunications services, and "encouraging broadband providers -- perhaps requiring them -- to offer standalone DSL." He also said a merger between DirecTV and EchoStar might make sense, while a merger between XM and Sirius satellite radio would probably have to be pitched as a hardship case to overcome antitrust issues. He would not comment on the appropriateness of any possible merger. On the issue of Network Neutrality, which he called his first priority, Rep Boucher said he opposed a two-lane model of the Internet which could put competing video-streaming services at a disadvantage depending on if you were on the slow lane or the fast lane, for which networks would charge more. He said that "places innovation at risk." Rep Boucher says the multichannel video market is about to get very competitive with telco entry: "I think that if a merger between these two entities were presented today and the market were judged, not just as satellite providers taken in isolation but as multichannel video providers taken as a whole, including cable and telco, the analysis at Justice and the FCC on competition grounds could be very different."
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