roundtable: House plan lets Baby Bells enter long-distance market (CITS)

roundtable: House plan lets Baby Bells enter long-distance market (CITS)

House plan lets Baby Bells enter long-distance market (CITS)

W. Curtiss Priest (BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu)
Thu, 04 May 95 09:04:51 EDT 

Message-Id: <9505041306.AA27628@a.cni.org>
Date:         Thu, 04 May 95 09:04:51 EDT
From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject:      House plan lets Baby Bells enter long-distance market (CITS)
To: Telecommunications Policy Roundtable <ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG>


May 4, 1995
CITS Observations on attached article:
W. Curtiss Priest

Perhaps because the source of this release is a Business News Service
there is no mention of public interest provisions in the bill.

It is telling however, Fields' remark "Our legislation is predicated
on competition and an opportunity model, not government micromanagement,
whether it be federal or state."

I am sure many of us are anxious to read the full draft that will
be relased at bell.com later today.


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Boston Globe, May 4, 1995

House plan lets Baby Bells enter long-distance market

BLOOMBERG BUSINESS NEWS

WASHINGTON - House leaders
proposed a communications overhaul
yesterday that would let the seven
regional Bell companies and other
local telephone companies enter the
long-distance market as quickly as
18 months after it became law.

The bill sponsored by House
Commerce Committee Chairman
Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) and House
Telecommunications Subcommittee
Chairman Jack Fields (R-Texas)
would force the Baby Bells to open
their networks so other companies
can more easily compete with them
in offering local phone service.

As,soon as one competitor enters
the local market and builds its own
network, and state and federal regu-
lators give their blessing, the Bell
company would be allowed to enter
the long-distance business through-
out that state.

"The bill is encouraging," said
Nynex spokeswoman Jamie DePeau.
"There is room for change and room
for some additional improvement,
but it's an awfully good start."

The House Commerce Commit-
tee bill, like the one that passed the
Senate Commerce Committee on
March 23, aims to break down bar-
riers to competition between local
phone, long-distance, and cable com-
panies and let them compete against
each other to offer a full range of
communications services.

"When Congress last enacted
telecommunications policy, radio was
state of the art," Bliley said. "This
legislation will bring the law up to
date with technology."

The House bill calls for even
swifter deregulation of phone and
cable markets than the competing
plan being guided through the Sen-
ate by Commerce Committee Chair-
man Larry Pressler (R-S.D.)
Pressler's plan would let the Baby
Bells get into the $70 billion long dis-
tance market only after meeting a
series of 14 criteria to~prove their
markets are open to competition.

In contrast, the House bill would
force the Baby Bells to open their
markets whether they want to offer
long-distance or not. And the House
bill has a streamlined checklist that
the Baby Bells must meet to show
their markets are open within 18
months. After a state-by-state re-
view, the House bill gives the FCC
another 90 days for a final review.

"It would appear that the House
bill and the Pressler bill are broad
positives for the local exchange car-
riers," said Brown Brothers Harri-
man analyst Robert Wilkes.

The House bill would lift cable
rates on small operators immediate-
ly and then lift all but basic cable
rates on large operators in just 15
months. In addition, it would strearn-
line broadcast renewal periods and
give television stations the flexibility
to use their subchannels to offer
non-programming services.

"Our legislation is predicated on
competition and an opportunity mod-
el, not government micromanage-
ment, whether it be federal or state,"
Fields said.

Representatives of the local
phone industry said even though the
bill moves quickly to deregulate
their industry, they still have some
concerns about it. For example, the
process by which they would get cer-
tified to offer long-distance could be
cumbersome. In addition, they may
be required to open up their toll-call
business before they are allowed to
compete nationwide in the long-dis-
tance market.

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