Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409230031
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``We have to get legislation this year,'' Larry Irving, President Clinton's top telecommunications policy adviser, said at a Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing.
Passage of telecommunications reform legislation this year faces a number of considerable hurdles, including outright opposition from some senators. A single senator can block a vote in the closing days of a session.
There is also pressure from large regional phone companies and other powerful industry groups seeking substantial changes to the bill, and resistance from some consumer groups and local regulators. Also, the Senate bill would have to be reconciled with a pair of House-passed bills. The final product would then have to be considered again by each house before adjournment, now set for Oct. 8.
Still, Irving and Anne Bingaman, who heads the Justice Department's antitrust division, are confident a reform bill will pass this year. The bills promise new services and lower rates for local telephone and cable services, but consumer groups and state regulators worry that the Senate bill could unintentionally lead to higher local residential telephone rates.
Because the bill shifts much regulatory authority traditionally held by states to the federal government, they fear federal definitions of which services should be universally available will end up increasing local telephone rates.
``If we are to have a broad-band network, shouldn't it develop because people want to use it and are willing to pay for it? If my parents want to use their telephone for talking to friends, why should their phone bill cover some of the costs of my younger brother's video-on-demand service or my nephews' interactive video games?'' said Sharon Nelson, chairman of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
The Senate bill would let telephone and cable companies into each others' businesses and let regional phone companies provide long-distance service and manufacture telecommunications equipment.
The bill is also designed to spur construction of advanced broad-band networks - the information superhighway - that carry voice, video and data in two directions.
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, chairman of the antitrust subcommittee, will block a vote unless substantial changes are made, counsel Gene Kimmelman has said.
Metzenbaum wants to restore to the bill a test that would make it harder for regional phone companies to get into the long-distance business, the most contentious provision of the legislation.
Another big concern shared by consumer groups, local regulators and the administration is a provision that would let telephone and cable companies jointly operate advanced telecommunications networks in communities of 50,000 or fewer people.
``You potentially end up with one wire. That destroys the benefits of competition'' the bill is supposed to give consumers, Bingaman said.
by CNB