[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 14, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E949]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REGULATING BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. KAY GRANGER

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 14, 2003

  Ms. GRANGER. Mr. Speaker, over two months ago, the Federal 
Communications Commission adopted an order that will change the way it 
regulates broadband infrastructure. Under the old FCC rules, broadband 
provided by cable and satellite is essentially unregulated, but 
broadband provided by telephone companies is regulated like voice 
telephone service.
  The FCC saw that this created regulatory winners and losers and 
decided in February to change some of its broadband rules and move in 
the direction of parity for broadband. The FCC's action was the first 
step in the process of putting telephone company-provided DSL service 
on the same regulatory footing as cable provided high-speed Internet 
service. While, in the same proceeding, the FCC failed to remove its 
burdensome and economically devastating rules on the unbundled network 
element platform (UNE-P), at least they started to move broadband 
regulation in the right direction. This will be a much-needed change in 
broadband regulatory policy, and I applaud the FCC for this aspect of 
its ruling.
  Today, cable has more than two-thirds of the residential broadband 
market. To the consumer, the two services are fungible, but cable still 
dominates. Regulatory parity between DSL and cable modem service will 
result in more head-to-head competition between the two, creating 
better prices and new, innovative services. It will be a win-win for 
the consumer. The FCC should end its internal bickering and issue the 
text of the rules it adopted in February so the FCC can continue on the 
path to regulatory parity. Only then will our citizens realize the 
benefits of a fully-competitive broadband Internet market.

                          ____________________