Peterson votes against new local phone company monopolies

(WASHINGTON, DC) – Congressman Collin C. Peterson (DFL-7^th District) today expressed disappointment at House passage of HR 1542, also known as the “Tauzin-Dingell bill,” which would repeal certain anti-monopoly requirements imposed on the four Regional Bell Operating Companies. The legislation would allow Qwest, Verizon, SBC and BellSouth to revert back into long-distance companies for the purpose of routing a large portion of the phone line data flow that comprises the Internet. The Bells have claimed that they will increase their network capacity to speed up the Internet if Congress changes the law to allow them to carry long-distance data and restrict other phone companies’ access to phone lines that were originally AT&T’s.

“This legislation came up because the big Bell companies want into the successful high speed Internet industry but don’t want to play according to rules set by the ’96 Telecomm Act,” Peterson said. “Of course if you give them regional monopolies they’ll have the power to deploy a lot of broadband. But speeding up broadband deployment does not justify squeezing competition from the industry.”

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 set line-sharing requirements that the Bell companies must meet before they can re-enter the long-distance business. The restrictions allowed new companies to compete for Bell local customers. The House legislation virtually eliminates those requirements, providing incentive for the Bell local phone companies to enter long-distance data communications. Supporters of the bill believe the Bells will then bring high-speed Internet access to all homes and businesses. Critics contend that having such powerful companies in charge of Internet data flows will threaten the Internet’s growth and variety by stifling competition among service providers and applications producers. They also believe the Bells would continue their tendency toward improving access in urban areas at the expense of rural customers.

“In the past five years Qwest and Verizon have sold thousands of miles of rural Minnesota lines to smaller companies rather than improve them to carry broadband,” Peterson said. “They’re not interested in bringing broadband to rural markets. Local competitors are already doing more than the Bells to deploy broadband in towns and rural areas. In fact, it was Bell company competitors who introduced DSL to the market in the first place.”

The Tauzin-Dingell bill would require the Bells to provide high-speed capability to all of their remote terminals within five years. In order to obtain Direct Subscriber Line (DSL) service from those terminals, the home or business would have to be no more than three miles away.

“This legislation doesn’t help us in Northwest Minnesota because the Bells in our area have virtually disappeared,” Peterson said. “In their place, local high-speed Internet providers are growing and providing local jobs so that money from our phone bills stays in Minnesota. A year ago I cosponsored better legislation called the ‘Broadband Internet Access Act’ to provide incentives for existing local companies to accelerate high-speed Internet access in areas that big industry has neglected.”

The legislation now goes to the Senate for possible further consideration.