Congressmen tackling cable access
By Will Rodger, ZDNet
WASHINGTON -- Two bills introduced by two Virginia congressmen Thursday morning promised to accelerate the slow rollout of high-speed Internet service while building a new foundation for laws governing privacy, digital contracts and the hated floods of junk email now clogging inboxes around the world.
After months of hinting and at least one false start, sponsors Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., Thursday introduced legislation requiring all telecommunications companies to give Internet service companies the same access to their facilities their own Internet divisions already have.
Though couched in terms that place the same obligations on all carriers, whether phone, cable, satellite or wireless, the bills seem aimed straight at the nation's cable companies, which are fighting moves to open their networks to others.
The measures would also lift restrictions that keep Bell companies from rolling out long-distance, high-speed data links in their territories. In exchange, Bell companies would have to provide fast, affordable Internet services everywhere they could without incurring a loss. That would eliminate alleged foot dragging that critics say comes from Bell companies' desire to sell older, more expensive "T-1" links which often cost $1,000 and more a month. Newer digital subscriber line, or DSL, services go for as little as $40 monthly in some areas.
Consistency the goal
"The various technologies that are investing billions in research and development are currently treated differently under current application of federal law," Goodlatte said. "We must make sure that no single technology is favored over another. Our legislation would assure that the federal government takes an approach that assures consistency in applying existing laws to the Internet."
The Goodlatte-Boucher Internet Freedom Act echoes much of recent telecommunications reform by setting down rules to prevent companies that own infrastructure from dictating who provides services over it. The similarity ends there, however. For, unlike the controversial Telecommunications Act that was supposed to open markets through close federal supervision, the new proposal would keep cable and phone company supervision at the state level.
The bills give local phone companies a chance to win freedom from current restrictions over operating data networks within their territories. To get that leeway, telcos would need only to build affordable, high-speed connections to homes wherever "economically reasonable." State regulators would have to clear plans before they were rolled out. As with conventional telephone lines today, phone companies would have to open those digital lines to all comers.
Cable, satellite and other companies that don't do conventional phone service would also have to give ISPs connections to their network, or face possible lawsuits under the Sherman Antitrust Act. In all but the most extreme cases, however, it would be up to competitors to bring suit.
Phone companies: Thumbs up
Local phone companies, long eager to get their plans for corporate data services underway, praised the plan.
"The Internet has prospered because precisely because it is open and entrepreneurial," said Geoffrey C. Gould, vice president of government and regulatory affairs for GTE. "The provisions included in these bills will protect the Internet from the development of a cartel and ensure that the Internet can continue its dynamic growth without regulatory interference."
Cable lobbyists were as negative as phone companies were positive. "Not all networks are the same," one Washington operative quipped. Instead of opening their networks to others, cable companies should be free to choose who supplies Net connections and who doesn't, he said. Either way, he said, cable companies don't have a monopoly over high-speed access, since satellite companies and phone companies, are rolling out fast networks of their own. In addition, he said, new wireless networks from the three major long-distance carriers may soon start taking up the slack.
Vienna, Va.-based America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) praised the bills. Chairman Steve Case, in fact, has been lobbying Congress for similar action on cable. "We're very happy Congress is stepping forward on behalf of consumers," Spokeswoman Kathy McKiernan said. "It's pro-consumer, pro-competition and pro-Internet."
Not far enough?
But Commercial Internet Exchange Lobbyist Eric Lee said other Internet service providers fear the bill doesn't go far enough. By keeping regulatory power over local phone companies with the states, Goodlatte and Boucher have ceded authority to venues best known for weak regulation. As a result, he said, the phone companies could move into long-distance data services quickly while giving only lip service to providing affordable local data services to consumers and small businesses. CIX members need those local lines to sell their services in competition with cable.
In addition to encouraging high-speed connections, the bills would also require commercial Web sites to post and obey online privacy policies outlining what information they gather from visitors and what they do with that information afterwards. The measure seems to be the first recognition from Congress that voluntary privacy measures aren't gathering steam online.
The Goodlatte-Boucher bills would also give legal recognition to digital signatures used in private transactions and outlaw spam that uses forged return addresses to avoid detection by anti-spam software used by many ISPs.
See Also:
Net Caucus eyes future of the Net
Interview: Net Caucus' Rick Boucher
AT&T, MS shake hands on cable deal |
