Winstar Applauds FCC Ruling To Ensure Communications Choice for Consumers and Businesses
October 12, 2000 1:50:00 PM ET
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 12, 2000-- Ruling is a Major Step Towards a Universal Building Access Framework for Service Providers and the Real Estate Community
Winstar Communications, Inc. WCII, a leading broadband services company, praised today's ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as a major step in guaranteeing timely access to multi-tenant buildings, which will provide communications choice and innovation to the millions of Americans who live and work in these building.
The FCC issued a ruling that:
-- Prohibits exclusive arrangements between service providers and the real estate community;
-- Gives providers access to utility rights-of-way in and on top of buildings; and
-- Adopts a series of other steps, all of which are designed to provide greater access to multi-tenant buildings.
FCC chairman William Kennard praised this ruling, stating that, "facilities-based competition in multi-unit buildings is crucial to promoting consumer choice and advancing all the economic benefits of competition. And in this item, we have taken several important steps toward eliminating this last hundred-foot bottleneck." Chairman Kennard continued, "I am very pleased that we're taking some very strong and affirmative steps in this item, it will provide tenants in multi-unit buildings more choice."
In conjunction with this ruling, the FCC noted that "the real estate industry has taken positive steps to facilitate tenant choice of telecommunications providers by working toward best practices and model agreements," which the Commission said it would continue to monitor and review.
Winstar reaffirmed its commitment to work with the real estate community to continue to refine the process that promotes the delivery of new, high-speed broadband communications services to all businesses that desire them. Winstar has worked closely with commercial building owners and managers for five years to provide their tenants with true broadband network connections and services, accomplishing an industry-leading 11,000+ building access rights.
"Winstar applauds the FCC for its efforts to bring choice and innovation to consumers and businesses," said William J. Rouhana, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Winstar. "The FCC has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to ensure that the millions of citizens who live and work in multi-tenant buildings have the same communications choices and services as other Americans. This decision will not only shorten the time it takes to obtain access rights, but it will also allow us to be more efficient in building out our network. Our biggest opportunity, however, is to advance the cooperative efforts that we have already undertaken with the real estate community to bring consumers and businesses the broadband communications services that they need to be successful." |
