More Fireworks Ahead for Broadband Bills
By Stephen Barlas
from the June 18, 2001 issue of Broadband Week
WASHINGTON -- The already murky prospects for a bill loosening data business restraints on the ILECs is even muddier after additional action in the House of Representatives.
The House Judiciary Committee's backhanded passage of the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act--the so-called Tauzin-Dingell bill--possibly delays further action on the measure until lawmakers return from their July 4th recess.
Judiciary members added some anti-ILEC amendments to the bill and recommended that the full House reject the measure, leaving House Rules Committee chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., with a Solomon-like dilemma: He could bring the Tauzin bill, which already has passed through Louisiana Republican Billy Tauzin's Energy and Commerce Committee, either with or without the Judiciary amendments, to the House floor. Or Dreier could lobby Tauzin and Judiciary chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., to come up with a compromise version of the bill.
On June 13 the Judiciary Committee amended the measure to require Justice Department approval of the RBOCs' applications to provide long distance service. A second amendment clarifies that antitrust laws do not conflict with the 1996 Telecommunications Act, a provision sought by CLECs who believed it would override a recent federal court ruling they believe favors the RBOCs.
The amendments could create more sparks in the already heated battle over whether the Baby Bells should be deregulated as a way of spurring proliferation of broadband access services. The Tauzin bill would allow them to provide interLATA data services without having to go to the FCC for approval based on their satisfaction of so-called Section 271 requirements of the Telecom Act, that are intended to ensure that they have made their local networks open for use by competitors.
The Tauzin bill also reduces some RBOC requirements with regard to line-sharing and line-splitting with competitors.
Judiciary rejected a third, CLEC-backed amendment that would have mandated a new, private sector arbitration system, overseen by the Justice Department, to handle complaints between CLECs and the RBOCs. The FCC currently fields CLEC complaints about inadequate access to RBOC facilities.
Michael Boland, senior vice president of federal government relations for Verizon Communications Inc., says his company thinks the state public utility commissions already have enough authority via performance assurance plans to force RBOCs to comply quickly with CLEC requests for interconnections and the like.
While Verizon could support state-run arbitration, it opposed Justice Department involvement. Boland points out that Justice has not even asked for such authority.
Verizon and the other ILECs also opposed the so-called Cannon-Conyers bill that was rejected by the Judiciary Committee. That measure would have required the ILECs to reduce their local phone market share to 85 percent before they were allowed to offer broadband Internet access in that market.
The political situation surrounding the bill in the House remains fluid. One CLEC official says, "Dreier is saying the right things in private." But some observers such as Peter Jacoby, vice president of legislative affairs for AT&T, wonders why the House leadership would make members "walk the plank" and vote for a controversial, acrimoniously-lobbied bill that apparently has no chance of passage in the Senate.
AT&T would be happy if Congress does nothing, Jacoby says. "The demand for DSL is strong and the RBOCs are meeting that demand," he adds.
The RBOCs want the freedom to build long-distance Internet backbones so as to be able to compete with backbone providers AT&T, Sprint, WorldCom and Cable & Wireless. But in exchange, they would have to swallow at least two concessions demanded by CLECs. One is the so-called "build-out" amendment in the Tauzin bill mandating that they deploy broadband to all customers within five years.
The amendment talks in terms of converting, for example, 20 percent of the "upgradeable customer loops" in a given state during the first year. Upgradeable loops are considered to be less than 15,000 feet from the central office, and lines on which providing DSL would not degrade voice quality.
Verizon's Boland believes Congress will revisit this amendment at some later date based on research the RBOCs do on how their central offices will be affected.
|
