No Failure to Communicate ...

NO FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE ...
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Tom Steinert Threlkeld, Editor In Chief]
[Commentary] Back when the 1934 Communications Act gave birth to the Federal Communications Commission, the media consisted of newspapers, magazines, postal mail and the first big electronic players -- radio, telephone and telegraph companies. There was just one problem. The telephone industry was dominated by a monopoly (the American Telephone & Telegraph Co.) The telegraphy industry essentially was a duopoly (Western Union and Postal Telegraph). Regulation was the response. The days of stifled choices in communications are disappearing in a rush. That has been coincident with the 1996 reform of the Communications Act. But not because of it. That act tried to help new companies gain access to Bell telephone companies' networks, to provide alternative local service. But competition instead came in the form of a second set of networks -- namely cable systems. Those cable-system operators, on their own, tested the waters and are now diving into the business, head-first and with serious success. The digital age needs an act that commits government to just a few tasks: defining what universal communications service needs to be and how it should be funded; allocating spectrum; protecting intellectual property in transit; and, keeping competition open. Instead of more patches, it's time for regulators and legislators to figure out how to get out of the way. If they can, the last decade has proved that product innovators, network innovators and technology visionaries will take care of providing consumers and businesses with more ways to communicate with each other than they can even now employ.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6404698.html?display=Opinion

LIMITED FOCUS ON TELECOM OVERHAUL IN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AGENDA
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 1/4, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
Overhauling the nation's telecommunications laws received little attention at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce briefing, suggesting that the issue may be less critical for the group now that Democrats control Congress. A new Chamber report issued Thursday on "The State of American Business" devotes only one paragraph to telecom, which is lumped together with transportation. "We will also advocate updated federal telecommunications laws and seek the elimination of federal policies that hinder investment in technology, while opposing net neutrality legislation," the report said. Chamber Of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said that the conditions recently imposed by the FCC on the AT&T-BellSouth merger "took some steam out of what we're trying to do on the re-regulation of the telecommunications business." But he contended that those conditions, many of which the Chamber considers ill-advised, will spur the business community to seek recourse through legislation.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-QTBG1168026646808.html