* Two legislature proposals looking to revamp the Telecommunications Act of 1996
Momentum is building on Capital Hill to tackle telecommunications reform in 2006.
Two legislative proposals were introduced in recent months: one is a staff-written draft from the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the other is a bill from Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.). Both proposals would revamp the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was landmark legislation that spurred the development of competition in telephony.
Telecommunications industry groups and leading vendors are starting to line up behind certain aspects of these proposals. Various constituencies – ISPs, traditional telephone carriers, cable television providers, VoIP start-ups and consumer groups – are outlining the big-picture changes they would like to see happen in the telecommunications marketplace.
However, no one expects telecom reform to happen quickly or easily.
“Telecom policy is always hotly debated in Washington D.C., but there is a lot of hurry up and wait,” says Grant Seiffert, executive vice president of the Telecommunications Industry Association. “Nothing gets accomplished but over a long period of time.”
Seiffert points out that some Washington watchers predicted that telecom reform would be passed in 2005. Now it could be a long shot for telecommunications reform to pass in 2006 because it’s an election year and the Republican-written proposals in the House and Senate have yet to attract support from Democrats.
“Everyone is playing for 2006, but it could be into 2007 before we get anything passed,” Seiffert says.
Although it is still early in the debate, several issues are emerging as central to any telecommunication reform effort likely to pass Congress:
* How to level the playing field between heavily regulated wireline carriers and less-regulated cable television providers competing against each other for broadband customers.
* What new regulations if any should be applied to start-up VoIP providers.
* What should be done about universal service requirements applied to traditional telephony carriers.
* How to ensure “network neutrality,” so that owners and operators of the networks of the future do not have undue control over the content carried on those networks.
“For ITAA, the big issue is network access,” says Mark Uncapher, senior vice president and counsel of the Information Technology Association of America. “It isn’t just what consumers can get. It’s what companies that are providing services can get access to the networks to sell their services in the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets.”
So far, the debate over telecommunications reform has focused on residential rather than corporate users of telecom services.
“There is a tendency to look at all of these telecom issues from the exclusive perspective of the broadband consumer marketplace and not enough from the lack of available alternatives for the enterprise telecom marketplace,” Uncapher says. “Some policymakers are fond of pointing out cable as a wireline alternative, but cable is not much of an alternative for the business user.”
One issue of importance to corporate users of IP services that hasn’t been tackled by Congress yet is how to improve local access.
“Local access is still the bottleneck, whether it’s the consumer or corporate user,” says Jeff Storey, CEO of Wiltel. “None of the bills have a provision for ensuring cost-based, non-discriminatory access to local access. This is especially important as the market is being consolidated into fewer local access providers.”
To read more about the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s latest draft of its telecommunications reform, click here.
