Copyright 2002 The Buffalo News  
Buffalo News (New York)
February 22, 2002 Friday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE, Pg.C10

LENGTH: 419 words

HEADLINE: BROADBAND COMMUNICATIONS

BODY:
There's an important issue about to come to a vote in the House, one that will affect current and future users of broadband communications channels to tap the power of the Internet.

The Tauzin-Dingell bill, or the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act, is expected to pass the House in a vote next week. The bill has a bit tougher route in the Senate.

Supporters claim the bill, sponsored by Reps. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., and John Dingell, D-Mich., will help accelerate the deployment of broadband Internet services through the country. Broadband delivers the Internet faster, and also frees up phones while people are online.

However, this page did not support the bill when a House committee advanced the legislation, and our position stands. This bill creates a monopoly for the "Baby Bells" and attempts to circumvent the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which says that if a telephone company wants to offer long-distance service, it has to open its phone lines to competitors.

This language is nonexistent in the Tauzin-Dingell bill, which deals with data. The lack of competition ultimately hurts consumers. Period.

It's worth noting that the situation is slightly different here, because Verizon already has had to open its lines to competitors because of its earlier push to provide long-distance service. But the Baby Bells, which have a virtual lock on local phone service nationwide, should not be able to establish yet another nationwide monopoly in the broadband services market.

What makes this situation worse is that the Federal Communications Commission recently proposed that high-speed Internet access provided by telephone companies not be subject to the same regulations governing basic telephone service. If adopted, this would be a significant step for the telephone companies, which would not have to offer competitors Internet access, e-mail and other services over the telephone lines the regional carriers use to deliver high-speed service.

In these merger-happy days, it is impractical to think that virtually handing the telephone companies a Digital Subscriber Line monopoly is going to stimulate private-sector investment. But it will help expedite the demise of smaller competitors that need access to the existing lines.

If the Tauzin-Dingell bill goes any further, it will surely jeopardize the chances of the small competition making a go of it in DSL. It will ensure that consumers will have even fewer choices, and that's the real impact.

LOAD-DATE: February 23, 2002