Broadband Bill Hopes to Spur Competition

A pair of lawmakers on Thursday set in motion new legislation that goes head-to-head with a controversial bill favoring regional Bell companies.

Representatives John Conyers, D-Michigan, and Chris Cannon, R-Utah, introduced the Broadband Competition and Incentives Act of 2001.

Received warmly by consumer groups, long-distance companies, and emerging telecoms, the act is aimed at bolstering provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a landmark law designed to spur competition.

Specifically, the bill would hold Baby Bells to existing statutes that require these local phone giants to meet a rigorous competition checklist before being allowed to offer long-distance services.

The Conyers-Cannon legislation stands in direct contrast to legislation introduced earlier by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-Louisiana, and Representative John Dingell, D-Michigan.

The Tauzin-Dingell legislation, called the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001, is built around the notion that unleashing the Bells from certain regulations will jumpstart wide-scale deployment of broadband.

On the other hand, the Conyers-Cannon bill would aim to spur broadband by establishing a $3 million fund to build out rural services during the next five years.

This latest broadband bill would also set up an alternative dispute resolution process that smaller Internet service providers such as DSL companies could use when encountering trouble getting access to the Bells' infrastructure.

Baby Bell competitors and consumer groups have showered the Tauzin-Dingell effort with criticism and have now rallied behind the Conyers-Cannon bill.

"We are concerned that the Tauzin-Dingell bill would have exactly the opposite effect of its professed aim. Due to the economic slowdown, many of those who were the real innovators for Internet services and local phone competition are faltering," observed Gene Kimmelman, co-director of the Consumers Union in Washington.

"Tauzin-Dingell would hobble those innovators by giving the monopoly Bell companies further advantage over their potential competitors," Kimmelman continued in a statement.

Others standing in support of the Conyers-Cannon bill include Sprint, WorldCom, Covad Communications, and several organizations representing smaller ISPs and CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers).