[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1014 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1014

 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure competition in the 
               provision of electronic security services.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                May 24 (legislative day, April 19), 1993

   Mr. DeConcini (for himself, Mr. Breaux, Mr. Durenberger, and Mr. 
   D'Amato) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure competition in the 
               provision of electronic security services.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Alarm Industry Competition Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the public interest will be best served by continued 
        vigorous competition in the provision of alarm security 
        monitoring services;
            (2) because alarm security monitoring services are 
        dependent upon access to the local telephone network, there is 
        a substantial possibility that competition in the provision of 
        alarm security monitoring services will cease to exist if these 
        services are provided by the Bell Telephone Companies, which 
        possess monopoly power;
            (3) current providers of alarm security monitoring services 
        are overwhelmingly small businesses, with substantial 
        investment in plant and equipment, and they employ over 125,000 
        individuals;
            (4) the alarm security monitoring industry provides 
        services that protect the life, property, and safety of 
        millions of Americans; and
            (5) it is essential to preserve the existing competitive 
        State in the alarm security monitoring service industry so long 
        as there exists a substantial possibility that the Bell 
        Telephone Companies can use their monopoly power to act 
        anticompetitively when providing alarm security monitoring 
        services.

SEC. 3. ALARM SECURITY MONITORING SERVICE COMPETITION.

    Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 is amended by adding at 
the end thereof the following new section:

``SEC. 227. ALARM SECURITY MONITORING SERVICE COMPETITION.

    ``(a) No Bell Telephone Company, or any affiliate of the company, 
shall provide alarm security monitoring services for the protection of 
life, safety or property. A Bell Telephone Company may transport alarm 
security monitoring signals but on a common carrier basis only.
    ``(b) For the purposes of this section, `alarm security monitoring' 
is defined as an information service designed to protect life, safety, 
or property via the remote supervision of conditions at commercial and 
residential premises, including--
            ``(1) the supervision at a remote central office of signals 
        from sensors that detect intrusion, heat, fire, medical 
        emergencies, and similar threats to life, safety, and property 
        emanating from the monitored premises; and
            ``(2) the notification by the remote central office of 
        appropriate entities in the event that the signals indicate the 
        likelihood of burglary, fire, vandalism, bodily injury, or 
        similar emergencies at the monitored premises.
    ``(c)(1) For the purposes of this section the term `Bell Telephone 
Company' means any of the following companies:
            ``(A) Bell Telephone Company of Nevada.
            ``(B) Illinois Bell Telephone Company.
            ``(C) Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Incorporated.
            ``(D) Michigan Bell Telephone Company.
            ``(E) New England Telephone and Telegraph Company.
            ``(F) New Jersey Bell Telephone Company.
            ``(G) New York Telephone Company.
            ``(H) US West Communications Company.
            ``(I) South Central Bell Telephone Company.
            ``(J) Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company.
            ``(K) Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.
            ``(L) The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania.
            ``(M) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company.
            ``(N) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of 
        Maryland.
            ``(O) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of 
        Virginia.
            ``(P) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West 
        Virginia.
            ``(Q) The Diamond State Telephone Company.
            ``(R) The Ohio Bell Telephone Company.
            ``(S) The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company.
            ``(T) The Wisconsin Telephone Company.
            ``(2) The term `Bell Telephone Company' includes any 
        successor or assign of any such company that owns facilities 
        over which are provided telephone exchange services or that is 
        so affiliated with an entity that owns facilities that provide 
        telephone exchange services.''.

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