Dear Senator Wyden:

We are writing to commend you for your ongoing leadership in defining and advancing policies to speed the deployment of advanced telecommunications to rural areas.  We share your goal of ensuring that Americans in all regions of the country have access to advanced telecommunications and information services and we pledge to work with you, your Congressional colleagues, the Administration, the Federal Communications Commission and State policymakers to address the problems of under-served rural areas.

Your leadership in co-authoring the May 20th letters to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and the Administrators of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Rural Utility Service is appreciated.  Those letters properly recognize that adhering to the twin goals of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 -- promoting competition and protecting and advancing universal service - is the best way to ensure that advanced services are deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion.  Your letters make clear that it is now the job of federal and state agencies to implement these goals.  As Senator Daschle noted in his recent comments, the Section 271 procedure is both viable and necessary to ensure that the telephone companies fulfill their promise to open their networks to competition.

The Act's success in encouraging new, innovative entities to provide advanced services is well documented.  Today, there are over 150 competitive local telephone providers and hundreds of new Internet and advanced services providers - most of whom exist only because of the passage of the Telecommunications Act. Incumbent local exchange providers are now beginning to wake up from their "monopoly slumber" and respond to these competitive threats by meeting customer demands.  Based upon the track record to date, Americans will benefit if the tenets of the 1996 Act are upheld by Congress. 

We believe the central issue raised by your letters is whether ALL Americans will enjoy these benefits.  Your leadership has already jump-started a serious effort to answer these questions.  We fully support your proposal for an analysis by the NTIA and the RUS into the availability of advanced services, particularly in rural and high-cost areas. We will cooperate in every way to assist in its expeditious completion.  Additionally, we are examining current market activities, existing advanced service deployments, and future technological innovations to fully evaluate the potential costs and benefits of the various proposals in your letter to the FCC.

Again, we wish to express our support for your work in raising concerns about rural access to advanced telecommunications services.  We look forward to working closely with you and your colleagues on this important issue 

Sincerely,

Competitive Broadband Coalition Members

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The Competitive Broadband Coalition members include the Association of Communications Enterprises (ASCENT), the Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), AT&T, the Commercial Internet eXchange Association (CIX), CompTel (Competitive Telecommunications Association), Cable & Wireless, Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), Montana Telecommunications Association, Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA), Sprint, Touch America and WorldCom. More information can be found at http://www.competitivebroadband.org/1041/home.jsp