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FCC eyes broadband push
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July 9, 1998: 1:55 p.m. ET
Commission, executives agree U.S. should promote competition
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Federal Communications Commission chairman and a panel of telecommunications executives said Thursday the government needs to promote competition in order to bring high-speed communications to homes and businesses across the country.
At an FCC hearing in Washington regarding bandwidth issues, commissioners and company executives discussed ways in which the government can work with the industry to ensure broadband communications are widely deployed.
Broadband refers to a single wire, such as cable television, that can carry several channels of data. Standard phone lines carry only a single channel.
FCC Chairman William Kennard said the fact that companies from various industries are working to provide higher bandwidth will ultimately be good for consumers.
"Wherever there's demand, there should be bandwidth," Kennard said. "It's important that all these firms be able to compete without being constrained by government power. The challenge at the commission is in creating a deregulatory environment."
Of particular interest to executives was the issue of the "last mile," which refers to communications traffic between switching stations and homes or offices.
Typically, local telephone-service providers have had a lock on the last mile. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 calls for local and long-distance providers to open their markets gradually to competitors.
Several executives alluded to recent mergers, such as the one between AT&T Corp. (T) and Tele-Communications Inc. (TCMOA), as alliances that would stifle competition by denying others access to the last mile.
Nearly all the executives referred to the Telecommunications Act to urge the FCC to keep its promise to promote more competition in the market.
"It's important to appreciate the need for a transition period to allow new entrants to compete with the entrenched players," said Steven Chrust, vice chairman of WinStar Communications Inc. (WCII).
"The Telecommunications Act of 1996 tore down the legal barriers that stood in the way of companies like WinStar. The commission must make certain that the pro-competition provisions of the Telecommunications Act are fully implemented."
Some executives stressed that the government should not enforce regulations preventing telecommunications companies from offering different services on the same network.
"We believe data transmission and voice transmission are all telecommunications," said Richard Morris, vice president of local market integration at Sprint Corp.'s (FON) national integration services division.
"They should be available for resale, they should all be covered under the Telecommunications Act. Providers like Sprint should be able to carry these services all on one network rather than fragmenting them."
Though everyone was concerned about what would be the best way to foster deployment of broadband services, one FCC commissioner expressed her concern about the availability of those services.
"I don't want to read in the papers in 10 years that deployment is taking place in the big cities and not in the rural areas," Commissioner Gloria Tristani said. 
-- by staff writer John Frederick Moore
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