Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Amy J who wrote (137528)	6/19/2001 7:39:25 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Amy, Maybe Mr. Grove has been reading your posts on this thread <g>: Intel Chair Wants Relaxed Broadband Rules By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) chairman Andrew Grove called on the U.S. government Monday night to relax regulations on high-speed Internet access, saying wider deployment was necessary even if it would cause more independent carriers to go out of business. But Grove stopped short of endorsing a controversial bill making its way through Congress that seeks the same result, saying he had ``nothing to add'' to the debate that pitches established local-phone providers like Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news) and SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC - news) against independent companies and long-distance giants like AT&T Corp (NYSE:T - news). Speaking at a dinner event sponsored by the Progressive Policy Institute, a centrist Democratic think tank, Grove argued that a 1996 law that sought to encourage competition in local telecommunications markets had failed to bring widespread high-speed, or ``broadband'' access. Rather than seeking to encourage smaller players to compete, the government should relax restrictions and allow the incumbent ''Baby Bells'' to dominate the market, he said. Armed with an array of slides depicting the slowdown of the digital economy, Grove said that Internet traffic continues to grow even as tech firms face financial difficulties. In order for the industry to complete its infrastructure buildout, the companies in a position to do so -- large, stable, incumbent phone companies -- must have the incentive of large profits, he said. ``It is time for a new approach in which telecom incumbents that have emerged strongest in this battle should be allowed to invest with the fair expectation of making a lot of money,'' Grove said. Independent telecom companies like Covad Communications Corp (Nasdaq:COVD - news) and PSInet have struggled, with PSInet having declared bankruptcy, as financing has evaporated in the capital markets this year. Grove also called for the loosening of export controls on high-performance computers and a continued policy of free trade, positions frequently echoed by other high-tech business interests. The 1996 Telecommunications Act requires Baby Bells to open their networks to rivals before they can jump into markets like long-distance voice and data services. A bill sponsored by Reps. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana and John Dingell of Michigan seeks to remove that restriction, generating heated debate among telecom firms that would stand to benefit or lose if the bill were enacted into law. Grove declined to endorse the Tauzin-Dingell bill: ``I really don't have anything to add to that debate,'' he said. But in his call for a relaxation of the 1996 Act, he seemed to display little sympathy for the independent telecommunications providers who argue that their only chance of survival lies with continued regulation of their marketplace. ``If we want to see broadband we have to follow the money. As simple, as cruel, as out-there as that is,'' he said. John