Said the pot to the kettle, "You're black!"
SBC says cable industry holds broadband monopoly
By George Leopold
EE Times
(05/17/01, 1:43 p.m. EST)
WASHINGTON — The head of one of the largest regional phone companies attacked the cable industry Wednesday (May 16) for stifling competition in broadband services.
Edward Whitacre, chairman of SBC Communications Inc. (San Antonio, Texas), said "monopoly" cable operators are using their market power to keep telecommunications companies out of the market for delivering high-speed Internet access. The issue has moved to the fore with the introduction of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would free regional phone companies to offer broadband services with fewer strings attached.
The House bill, the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001, is addressing "the cable stranglehold that is developing in the broadband marketplace," Whitacre said in a speech here.
The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would rewrite the 1996 Telecommunications Act to allow phone companies to offer broadband services without first opening their local networks to competitors. It was recently approved by Tauzin's committee despite strong Democratic opposition in the form of alternative legislation (see related story).
The cable industry also opposes parts of the broadband bill. In an April letter to Tauzin's committee, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, based here, said the legislation represented a "broad rewrite" of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. It also warned the legislation would create regulatory uncertainty that would have a negative impact on capital markets and investment in broadband technologies that compete with telecom services like DSL.
"The broadband business is not even addressed in the 1996 [telecom] act." Whitacre said. "There should be more competition" to provide broadband services.
In defending the legislation, Tauzin said it "provides the right amount of deregulation for broadband services. It rejects the application of antiquated telephone rules to a new market like broadband [and] seeks to maximize investment and innovation in new facilities."
DSL deployment has suffered from rising prices, spotty service and, according to Whitacre, an unregulated cable industry that has used its dominance to grab 75 percent of the broadband market. He argued that the broadband legislation would level the playing field to telecom competitors by lifting the regulatory burdens on DSL deployment.
Along with cable modems and DSL services, satellite and fixed wireless services are also vying for a piece of the lucrative broadband market. "Broadband is the name of the game," said Whitacre, who has run SBC since 1990.
SBC said earlier this month it had opened a new phase of its next-generation network deployment under a $6 billion effort called Project Pronto. The project is designed to bring high-speed Internet access to 80 percent of SBC's customers. It is based on the company's broadband passive optical networking technologies.
Whitacre said the project should be completed next year.
SBC currently offers long-distance services in four of the 13 states its covers. Whitacre said it would seek regulatory approval this summer to offer long distance service in California. |
