U.S. Senator John Ensign, Republican, Arizona
updating the Telecommunications Act of 1996
A lot of people have talked about re-writing the Telecommunications Act of 1996, but now someone is trying to do it.
U.S. Senator John Ensign (R-NV) yesterday introduced "The Broadband Consumer Choice Act of 2005," which would fundamentally overhaul the country's existing regulatory framework for the Broadband Age.
Senator Ensign launched this bill at a
press conference yesterday. Today, he issued a press release entitled
"Ensign Telecom Rewrite Drive Market Up".
According to a "Lightwave Web Exclusive" entitled
"Ensign introduces bill to revise 1996 telecommunications act," this bill, no number or text of which could be found today on
Thomas, the U.S. Congress' legislative database, reportedly would eliminate:
1. state and federal oversight over phone-service pricing and terms
2. statutes requiring that phone companies share their copper-wire networks with competitors
3. a requirement that new TV-service providers obtain licenses from state and local governments
4. existing cable franchises
an effort to protect municipal broadband at risk from Senator Ensign's telecomm reform bill
This bill is not good news for supporters of S.1294,
"The Community Broadband Act of 2005," a bill to protect the right of municipalities to offer broadband Internet access to their residents. U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is the bill's sponsor, and, at this writing, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is its sole co-sponsor.
According to an article
"Ensign Measure Would Restrict Municipal Broadband Networks," by David Hatch published by the National Journal Group, Inc.:
"Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is drafting restrictive language on the creation of municipal broadband networks that might blunt efforts by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., to allow localities to offer low-cost wireless or wireline service.
"Ensign, who favors a pro-business agenda as chairman of the Senate Commerce Technology Subcommittee and the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force, will insert his provisions into a comprehensive deregulatory telecommunications bill he is drafting, aides said. McCain and Lautenberg introduced their bill last Thursday.
"The conflicting bills address one of the most heavily lobbied issues in this year's rewrite of 1996 telecommunications law – whether municipalities can compete with private enterprise and offer broadband services.
"The high-stakes question -- millions of dollars in fees might be lost by Internet providers such as SBC if local governments are given a chance to serve some customers -- has already resulted in backroom maneuvering and changes in loyalty.
"Congressman [
sic] Ensign's broadband provisions would prohibit government-sponsored networks except in instances of a "true market failure," said Jack Finn, his spokesman. He added that the senator thinks "private enterprise and the free market should prevail."
the U.S. Supreme Court's take on "private enterprise and the free market," with an opposing view
The introduction of Senator Ensign's "Broadband Consumer Choice Act of 2005" follows closely on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision, in
Brand X v. FCC, that cable companies have no duty to open their cable plant to competing Internet service providers (ISPs) and the frequently-expressed desire of telephone companies to be similarly relieved of the need to share their lines, either.
You can listen to the reaction of Jim Pickrell, President of the eponymous Santa Monica, California-based Brand X, to this decision (in which he declares himself "horrified but powerless" by the ruling) by clicking
here. You can watch and listen to him discussing the case in an earlier, remotely-recorded video interview by clicking
here.
"Community Broadband Act of 2005" documents
To read the Lautenberg-McCain "Community Broadband Act of 2005," click
here.
U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat, New Jersey (on the left)
To read a "Dear Colleague" letter, sent on May 2, 2005, by
Senator Lautenberg in support of this bill, click
here.
U.S. Senator John McCain, Republican, Arizona
To read a floor statement made by
Senator McCain in support of S.1294 on June 23, 2005, click
here.
You can access another piece, entitled "McCain Takes on SBC, Supports Community Broadband," by David Hatch about S.1294, the Community Broadband Act of 2005, re-purposed on the
Media Alliance web site a day prior to Senator McCain's floor presentation, by clicking
here.
U.S. Representative Pete Sessions, 32nd District, Texas
the political dialectic of community broadband legislation
The Lautenberg-McCain legislation in support of allowing citizens of cities to provide themselves, through their democratically-elected governments, with an essential service, broadband Internet access, arose following the introduction by
U.S. Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) of the "Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005" (H.R. 2726), the intention of which is to prohibit such citizen action. You can read and listen to more about H.R. 2726, the "Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005," by clicking
here.
colossi and the little guy
Some critics of "The Broadband Consumer Choice Act of 2005," while believing that it will in fact "level the playing field," worry that it will also leave that field to an uncompetitive duopoly consisting of one giant cable company and one giant phone company in every major market, leaving broadband Internet "consumers" with a choice only between
a cable Scylla and a telco Charybdis..
Other observers see in the emerging liquidation of citizen rights to provide themselves with essential digital services a reflection of what
William Shakespeare had Cassius say of Caesar, and of all the "little guys":
"Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
(
Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, Act I, Scene ii, beginning at line 135)
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