Computer Industry and Regional Telephone Firms Join Together to Accelerate Widespread Availability of Fast Internet Services to Consumers Check It Out
December 7, 1998 -- Major computer industry and telephone companies today
announced completion of a unified proposal to be presented to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC). The goal of this proposal is to speed
availability of high-speed Internet access services, such as ADSL. The companies
involved include: Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Compaq Computer Corporation, Gateway,
GTE, Intel, Microsoft, SBC, and US West. Also in the alliance are the Information
Technology Industry Council and the Business Software Alliance.
The companies will present this proposal today to the FCC as a means of
encouraging telephone company investment in high-speed services for consumers.
Today's proposal, once adopted by the FCC, would establish a set of ground rules
that support rapid investment in high-speed infrastructure by the telephone
companies while ensuring a competitive playing field. The FCC has an open
proceeding on making advanced telecommunications services available to American
consumers as required by the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
"Today's announcement marks a significant win for consumers,'' said Rod Schrock,
Senior Vice President and Group General Manager, Consumer Products Group,
Compaq Computer Corporation. "Our customers tell us they are clamoring for faster
Internet connections. This proposal will ultimately give consumers the fastest
Internet experience possible by accelerating deployment of high- speed ADSL
Internet access.''
"The leading computer industry companies realize that regulation of bandwidth
deployment is their problem, too,'' said William Reddersen, BellSouth's Group
President, Value Added Services. "They also realize that the more incentives we
have to deploy faster Internet pipes, the sooner consumers can benefit from
advanced communications and information services delivered over the Internet.''
"This agreement represents another significant step towards Intel's goal of
widespread deployment of affordable broadband services,'' said Les Vadasz, Senior
Vice President, Corporate Business Development, Intel Corporation. "Recently, a
cross industry effort successfully defined and delivered a global, low cost,
consumer-friendly ADSL standard, known as G.Lite (G.992.2). Today's agreement on
these principles should provide a catalyst for the adoption of regulatory policies
that will both foster the efforts of the new competitors and strengthen the local
telephone companies' investment incentives to offer G.Lite and other broadband
services.''
"I applaud the efforts of these companies to speed the availability and lower the
cost of high-speed Internet connections for Americans, said Henry Geller, former
head of the National Telecommunications Information Administration and former
FCC general counsel. ''This is a fine example of cross-industry collaboration and we
urge the FCC to support this private sector initiative."
The initiative comes one week after the White House announced an effort with the
FCC, Commerce Department and U.S. Trade Representative to push for increased
private investment in high-speed networks so that consumers and businesses can
be free from slow Internet service.
The principles of the proposal are being presented to the FCC in meetings between
FCC Commissioners and officials from the computer and telephone industries. The
key points of the proposal include:
* The promotion of competition in the local exchange data communications
market;
* Incumbent telephone companies will give competitors greater access to
their central offices;
* All Internet service providers will continue to have access to the
broadband networks of the telephone companies;
* Unnecessary restrictive regulations will be lessened on the incumbent
telephone companies;
* The regional Bell companies will be able to provide long-distance data
communications if such freedom would substantially reduce the cost of
delivering high-speed Internet connections to consumers.
If adopted by the FCC, the principles of this proposal to which the computing
companies and local telephone companies have agreed would represent a major step
forward for a faster Internet available to the mass market, according to Compaq's
Schrock. He added that the principles will promote the deployment of new services
while also promoting competition in the telephone marke |
