May 19, 2000

From TR Daily

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration(NTIA) opposes efforts in Congress to ease federal regulation of incumbent local exchange carriers' provision of advanced services, NTIA Administrator Gregory L. Rohde said today. He said passage of any of the so-called broadband "regulatory relief" bills likely would thwart local phone competition and harm consumers.

"The recent activity on Capitol Hill to gut the Tele- communications Act of 1996 by excluding data and other advanced services from competition seems to be a change of mind for many legislators," Mr. Rohde said in remarks delivered at the National Press Club in Washington. NTIA "does not believe that we need to change course at this time. In fact, we believe that the results are evident that competition is working and now is the time to stay the course and continue to promote competition."

Mr. Rohde, who worked on portions of the Act when he was a Senate staffer, challenged the argument that eliminating regulation of incumbent's data services would spur deployment of broadband service. "The administration believes that competition, as structured under the 1996 Act, is the model that will best deliver advanced telecommunications and information services, such as high-speed Internet access.

"Walking away from the Act's pro-competitive provisions at this point would be a serious mistake," he said. "The Act is indeed about deregulation, ultimately. However, consumers will not benefit through deregulation of monopoly service. That is wy the Act is structured as it is: the first step is to establish a procompetitive environment."

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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