Verizon's Seidenberg defends broadband bill

The potential for widespread use of broadband services is much like the promise that wireless communications showed in its early days, according to Verizon Communications' president and co-CEO, Ivan Seidenberg. But if changes to the current U.S. telecommunications policy aren't made, broadband services won't have a chance to duplicate the success of wireless technology, he warned.

Seidenberg, who addressed an audience of Computer & Communications Industry Association members in Washington D.C., on Tuesday, made his case for passage of legislation known as the Tauzin-Dingell Bill. This bill would remove the requirement of Baby Bell telephone companies to open up local phone service to competition before launching high-speed broadband services.

Also referred to as the Broadband Bill, the legislation was sent back to the U.S. House of Representatives last week by its Judiciary Committee for amendment.

"We have to grind this out," Seidenberg said of the regulatory details surrounding broadband. "Competition is the right choice for communications. At Verizon, we agree with that. Make us open up the local voice network. Make us play by the rules and pay the price when we don't. But also let us dream bigger dreams."

The amendment to the Tauzin-Dingell Bill, which the House Judiciary Committee suggested last week, would subject all broadband providers -- Baby Bells and otherwise -- to antitrust review by the Department of Justice.

"It makes no sense to say that everyone but the [Baby] Bells are subject to antitrust review," said James Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and who spoke just after Seidenberg at the conference.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.