Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 18:08:38 -0500
------ Forwarded Message From: Barry Ritholtz <ritholtz () optonline net> Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 17:39:55 -0500 To: farber () cis upenn edu Subject: Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act Here's the form letter I received from my representative (Congressman Ackerman) sent in response to an email urging him to oppose to the (Orwellian titled) "Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act" I'm surprised that he actually included the line: "I believe the bill would level the playing field for new high-speed data services." I suppose in Washington DC, they must be seeing lots of broadband start ups getting funded over the next few years, huh? Dear Mr. Ritholtz: Thank you for contacting my office regarding H.R. 1542, The Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act. I appreciate your concern about this important issue. As you may already know, H.R. 1542 would amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit local exchange carriers from being required to pay for the transport or termination of telecommunications to the internet, or any provider of internet-access services. The legislation would also forbid the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and each State from regulating the charges or conditions for high-speed data service or internet-access service, or to regulate the facilities used in the provision of such service. Although I understand your concern with the passage of this legislation, I believe the bill would level the playing field for new high-speed data services. The broadband data marketplace is still in its developing stages and -- with only a twenty-five percent market share -- the regional bell operating companies (RBOCs) are far from being the dominant players. There is some concern about the development of competition in the local telephony market, but recently released data from the FCC on local telephone-service competition in the United States vividly illustrates that competition in the local telephony marketplace is taking root as a result of deregulation. I appreciate your interest in this subject and the time you took to contact me. Of course, if my office can be of any assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me. ------ End of Forwarded Message For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- IP: Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act Dave Farber (Feb 26)