February 9
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For Immediate Release                                                                

 

Media Contact:              

CIX

Barbara Dooley                                                                        

703-709-8200 

CIX STATEMENT ON FCC RULING ON STRUCTURAL SEPARATION

Herndon, Va., February 9, 2000 - We are deeply disappointed that the FCC today declined to extend the pro-competition provisions of Sec. 272 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.  As a result of its decision to allow the Sec. 272 structural and operational safeguards to sunset, the FCC has made it easier for the Bell companies to leverage their local access monopolies against independent ISPs, who rely on the Bell companies’ local network facilities.

In recent years, the Bell companies’ dealings with unaffiliated independent ISPs have been characterized by anti-competitive practices and resistance to local data and voice competition.  The FCC’s inaction rewards this strategy of opposing the competitive requirements of the 1996 Act.  Now the RBOCs are seeking to provide long-distance data services through legislative circumvention rather than compliance with the 1996 Act.

There is much at stake.  If their campaign for relief from competition succeeds, the ultimate losers will be American consumers and American Internet leadership.  As innovative Internet entrepreneurs are driven out by the RBOCs’ financial might, there is a distinct possibility that we may lose their creative skills and imagination.  These independent Internet pioneers - not the RBOCs – provided the leadership in connecting American businesses and families to the Internet.

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The Commercial Internet eXchange Association (http://www.cix.org) is a non-profit 501(c)6 trade association of public data internetworking service providers which promotes and encourages the development of the industry in both national and international markets.  Founded in 1991, CIX is the largest and oldest trade association of ISPs and Internet-related business in the United States.  It provides a neutral forum for the exchange of ideas and information and develops positions on legislation and policy issues among suppliers of internetworking services.  CIX is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.