U.S. regulators urged to speed Internet access
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Telecommunications Industry Association on Tuesday told federal regulators that advanced technology giving consumers faster access to Internet and other services is not being deployed to all Americans at a pace Congress had intended.
The technology, called advanced telecommunications capability, would allow consumer access to a range of services through telephone lines, cable lines and even wireless systems. In 1996, Congress amended cable laws allowing such expansion.
But the group warned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that this capability is, ''not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. It urged the FCC to remove regulatory barriers to investment in telecom capability and asked that the agency help encourage competition.
''We believe there is a clear demand for advanced telecommunications capability and the equipment exists today to deploy such technologies,'' the group wrote. ''The bottleneck in bringing advanced services to consumers resides in regulatory barriers and inadequate access for competitive providers.''
For example, cable modems are being deployed, but as currently configured they ''fall short'' of standards qualifying as fully advanced telecommunications capability.
Nationwide at the end of 1998, digital subscriber line services (DSL) -- which can be provided through telephone lines -- had about 25,000 subscribers, according to the group. Cable modem services had about 700,000 subscribers.
''Considering that in a country of 250 million people, telephone penetration is 94 percent and 65 percent of residences subscribe to cable television services ... it is clear that advanced telecommunications capability is not being deployed,'' the group said.
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