[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 51 (Tuesday, April 30, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3572-S3573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BREAUX (for himself, Mr. Nickles, Mr. Cleland, Mr. 
        Brownback, Mr. Miller, Mrs. Hutchison, and Mr. Hutchinson):
  S. 2430. A bill to provide for parity in regulatory treatment of 
broadband services providers and of broadband access services 
providers, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation.
  Mr. BREAUX. Mr. President, I rise today along with Senators Nickles, 
Cleland, Brownback, Miller, Hutchison, and Hutchinson to introduce 
legislation that is designed to rejuvenate the struggling 
telecommunications and high-tech sectors of our economy. The Broadband 
Regulatory Parity Act of 2002 requires the Federal Communications 
Commission, FCC, to adopt rules that establish a level playing field 
for all broadband service providers in order to spur investment in 
broadband technology and to ensure that consumers can obtain the 
benefits of free and open competition.
  Federal and State regulations on the books today governing high-speed 
Internet access are based largely on an outdated view of the telecom 
and high-tech industry. Both Federal and State regulators continue to 
view the emerging broadband market through different sets of eyes, 
focusing their regulatory policies on the type of provider rather than 
the type of service. Cable, wireless, and satellite providers face no 
regulation of their broadband networks, while telephone companies are 
heavily regulated. The effect of this disparate regulatory treatment 
among providers has been to construct a barrier to new investment in 
broadband networks by incumbent local telephone companies.
  I am not alone in calling on the FCC to level the regulatory playing 
field for broadband providers. Several weeks ago, the High Tech 
Broadband Coalition, a group comprised of six leading trade 
associations representing the computer, telecommunications equipment, 
semiconductor, consumer electronics, software and manufacturing 
industries, filed comments with the FCC requesting the removal of 
burdensome, outdated regulations that are hindering investment and 
limiting competition in high-speed Internet access.
  In order to promote free and fair competition in the broadband 
market, my legislation requires the FCC to promulgate regulations, 
within 120 days of enactment, to achieve regulatory parity between 
broadband services providers and facilities. The key provision in my 
bill is, I believe, the 120-day requirement for FCC action. The FCC, to 
its credit, is attempting by means of a tortuously slow process to move 
in the direction of regulatory parity among broadband services and 
providers. Once the FCC completes action on its rulemakings, however, 
its orders will certainly be appealed, just as the FCC's March 14, 
2002, order declaring cable modem service to be an information service 
has already been appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 
Ninth Circuit. To effect this needed regulatory parity, we need the 
expert agency to accomplish this reform with the necessary fine tuning 
that will further the public interest, but we need the force of 
Congressional action to bring about prompt results. I urge prompt 
action on this legislation.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I'm pleased to join Senator Breaux today 
to introduce a bill that will allow all providers of broadband services 
to compete under the same rules and regulations. This bill will bring 
certainty to the regulatory environment ensuring more Americans will 
have a choice in their broadband service provider.
  Access to broadband is crucial to consumers and communities in 
today's economy. High-speed connections to the Internet can provide a 
lifeline to small businesses, schools and hospitals, and can help 
communities prosper and grow in the Information Age.
  But unfortunately, different rules for competing high-speed Internet 
companies are stifling competition. Phone companies that offer the same 
service as wireless, satellite, and cable companies face different 
rules and regulations that raise costs and slow innovation. These rules 
make it more difficult and expensive for phone companies to provide 
broadband service, leaving millions of consumers without access to 
high-speed connections and millions more with only one choice.
  This service disparity is growing wider, and dozens of communities 
are at risk of being left behind, especially rural areas and inner-city 
neighborhoods. This bill will help close the Digital Divide and help 
ensure that all Americans have choices for high-speed Internet 
services. This issue is not about choosing winners and losers, it is 
about helping to ensure that high speed Internet service is not only 
available but competitive and affordable all across the country.
  The Breaux-Nickles bill is a free-market, deregulatory approach to 
encourage private companies to rapidly deploy this new technology. It 
does nothing to change what the 1996 Telecom Act sought to accomplish, 
to open up the local voice telephone market to competition. At the 
time, no one envisioned the growth of the Internet. In fact, the web 
browser had just been invented. This bill simply eliminates regulations 
that were intended for the legacy network but have been mistakenly 
applied to new infrastructure investment.
  The goal of this bill is to provide an economic incentive for local 
telephone companies to upgrade their networks and to rapidly deploy 
high-speed, broadband services throughout the U.S. According to the 
most recent nation-wide data, there are approximately 11 million high 
speed Internet subscribers. Of that total, 7.2 million currently use 
high-speed cable modems and 3.5 million use Digital Subscriber Lines 
(DSL) provided by the telephone companies.
  Today's rules are not only unfair but they are a disincentive to 
deployment. No company will invest the capital required to upgrade 
their network and deploy new technologies when they are required to 
provide this new, upgraded technology to their competitors at a 
government-set price. If high speed, broadband service is going to be 
deployed rapidly throughout the country, especially in rural areas, the 
answer is not more rules and regulations, but a market-based 
deregulatory approach.
  For a new market to evolve quickly and efficiently, government should 
not regulate the market out of existence before it has a chance to 
flourish. In fact, yesterday's Wall Street Journal had an editorial 
expressing concern about over-regulation at a critical time, it states, 
``Then the digital revolution ran headlong into the FCC and Congress, 
whose tender mercies enfolded consumer broadband at the moment of 
creation.'' It is not too late to encourage growth and innovation. As 
the Wall Street Journal points out, ``There's still plenty of Internet 
and telecom enthusiasm out there, if only regulators will let it 
blossom.''
  With regulatory certainty, companies have the incentive to invest. 
For example, earlier this week, in my home State of Oklahoma, less than 
two weeks after Gov. Frank Keating signed the first state broadband 
parity law in the country, SBC Southwestern Bell announced a massive 
program of technology investment that will nearly double the number of 
Oklahoma towns with access to high-speed DSL Internet Access Service.
  This initiative will bring high-speed DSL Internet service to 37 more 
towns, and expand access by building new broadband equipment in another 
25 towns that already have the service. The initiative will make DSL 
available to about 137,000 more homes and businesses in 62 Oklahoma 
communities.

[[Page S3573]]

SBC is making this investment at a time when they, and other 
telecommunications companies, have dramatically slashed capital 
spending throughout the country.
  This is the kind of investment that regulatory certainty and real 
competition bring and that is why I strongly support this legislation. 
If we can do for the country what we have done for the state of 
Oklahoma, Congress will go a long way toward reversing the economic 
slide currently enveloping the telecom sector. When all broadband 
providers are allowed to compete under the same rules, consumers win 
and the economy wins. I am pleased to sponsor this bipartisan approach 
to promoting competition for broadband services.

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