roundtable: TPR-NE Position conveyed to Full House Committee by APT
roundtable: TPR-NE Position conveyed to Full House Committee by APT
TPR-NE Position conveyed to Full House Committee by APT
W. Curtiss Priest (BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu)
Tue, 23 May 95 09:03:36 EDT
Message-Id: <9505231322.AA26512@a.cni.org>
Date: Tue, 23 May 95 09:03:36 EDT
From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject: TPR-NE Position conveyed to Full House Committee by APT
To: Telecommunications Policy Roundtable <ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG>
I received word yesterday that the position drafted from our meeting
Thursday before last was distributed to the full house commerce
committee by the Alliance for Public Technology last Friday.
The full committee is to take up H.R. 1555 sometime this week and so
this position paper is timely.
We put this statement together with little input from other than those
who attended the last meeting. There are clearly other pressing
matters including the Cox Amendment that Jamie Love has well addressed.
Since we do not know whether the full committee will act quickly, the
sub-committee met for less than a day, we don't know how much time is
left!
Nonetheless we value the input of the 226 readers on this list and
encourage you to post your own ideas about what is right and wrong
about H.R. 1555. For those of you who didn't download it when we
posted the bill 3 weeks ago, it is still at gopher site bell.com
under legislation.
We also encourage members of the list to contact Congressmen directly.
I have attached phone and fax numbers below.
Regards,
Curt Priest
Ad-hoc secretary to the last meeting
<bmslib@mitvma.mit.edu>
******************************************************************************
Telecommunications Bill H.R. 1555 Committee Release
from the
Telecommunications Policy Roundtable
North East
A Public Interest Forum
1. Position regarding UNIVERSAL SERVICE
2. Position regarding CROSS-OWNERSHIP
3. P.E.G. Access
*****************
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE
*****************
May 15, 1995
Contact: Curtiss Priest, CITS, 617-662-4044
On May 11th the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable(NE) met
at Virtually Wired, 55 Temple Place, Boston, MA regarding the
position of the Roundtable on H.R. 1555
1. UNIVERSAL SERVICE
The Telecommunications Policy Roundtable -- North East (TPR-NE) recommends
the following change in language regarding:
SEC. 246. UNIVERSAL SERVICE.
(a) Composition of the Board
"In addition to the members required under section 410(c), one
member of the Joint Board shall be a State-appointed utility
consumer advocate nominated by a national organization of State
utility consumer advocates."
To read:
"In addition to the members required under section 410(c), one-
third of the member of the Joint Board shall be State-appoint
utility consumer advocates nominated by national organizations
of State utility consumer advocates. The advocates shall be
selected to fully represent the range of public societal
concerns and interests including education, health, and the
general welfare of the nation."
Background: Section 410(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 provides
for the composition of a Joint Board to be comprised as:
"... a joint board to be composed of a member, or of an equal number
of members, as determined by the Commission, from each of the
States in which the wire or radio communication affected by or
involved in the proceeding takes place or is proposed."
Rationale: It is believed by TPR-NE that were a board of fifty members
of state PUC members were convened, that a single "consumer advocate"
would not well represent the public interest in this matter. The new
communications era will affect matters well beyond that anticipated
in the Communications Act of 1934 including matters of education,
competitiveness, privacy, equity, liberties, and the general shape of
a society in the "information age." There are many important voices
that would not be heard with a single, 'token' advocate.
2. The Telecommunications Policy Roundtable -- North East (TPR-NE)
finds language missing to protect the country against "cross-ownership"
Background:
Last week Dr. Curtiss Priest posted an article on several internet lists about
the empire that Rupert Murdoch was building from UPSIDE magazine (Feb. 1995)
The article describes an empire of over 25 companies owned by Murdoch
including Delphi Internet Services, Fox Broadcasting, TV Guide, Harper-
Collins Publishers, and the New York Post.
Concern:
The current bills in the house and the senate do not prevent cross-ownership
and could cause the greatest constriction of free speech this country
has ever seen.
Language:
There shall be no financial interests between a telecommunications
provider company and a media provider company. No telecommunications
company shall own, in any part, a media company; no media company
shall own, in any part, a telecommunications company.
To illustrate the problem:
Here is an announcement from MCI about their spending
$2 BILLION dollars to be part of cross-ownership!
>From Boston Globe, 5/14/95, p. 76
BUSINESS -- A TANDEM REVVING UP FOR THE INFO HIGHWAY
MCI Communications Corp. announced Wednesday a planned investment of
$2 billion in News Corp., Rupert Murdoch's global media giant. The
deal represents a neat fit between software and hardware, as the
various entertainment and information enterprises of News Corp.
might someday be distrbuting their products directly to customers'
homes through MCI transmission facilities. "Until today," Murdoch said,
"no one has put together the right building blocks - programming, network
intelligence, distribution and merchandising - to offer new media
services on a global scale. MCI's strengths are terrifically
synergistic with News Corp.'s"
3. The Telecommunications Policy Roundtable -- North East (TPR-NE)
finds P.E.G. access language in H.R. 1555 to be in line with
prior P.E.G. requirements and asks that this language remain
in the bill.
*************************************************************************
Committee on Commerce
PHONE FAX
REPUBLICANS
Bliley, Thomas,Chmn (VA) 225-2927 225-0011
Moorhead,Carlos(CA) 225-4176 226-1279
Fields, Jack 226-2424 226-4105
Oxley, Michael(OH)v-c 225-2676 226-1160
Bilirakis, Michael(FL) 225-5755 225-4085
Schaefer,Dan(CO) 225-7882 225-7885
schaefer@hr.house.gov
Barton,Joe(TX) 225-2002 225-3052
Hastert,Dennis(IL) 225-2976 225-0697
dhastert@hr.house.gov
Stearns,Cliff (FL) 225-5744 225-3973
cstearns@hr.house.gov
Paxon,Bill(NY) 225-5260 225-5910
Gillmor,Paul(OH) 225-6405 225-1985
Klug,Scott(WI) 225-2906 225-6942
Franks, Gary (CT) 225-3822 225-5085
Greenwood, Jim (PA) 225-4276 225-9511
Crapo, Michael (ID) 225-5531 225-8216
Cox,Christopher(CA) 225-5611 225-9177
Burr, Richard (NC) 225-2071 225-2995
Bilbray, Brian (CA) 225-2040 225-2948
Whitefield, Ed (KY) 225-3115 225-3547
Ganske, Greg (IA) 225-4426 225-3193
Frisa,Dan(NY) 225-5516 225-3187
Norwood, Charlie (GA) 225-4101 225-3397
White,Rick(WA) 225-6311 225-3524
repwhite@hr.house.gov
Coburn,Tom(OK) 225-2701 225-3038
DEMOCRATS
Dingell, John(MI) 225-4071
Waxman, Henry(CA) 225-3976 225-4099
Markey, Edward(MA) 225-2836 225-1716
Tauzin,W.J.(Billy)(LA) 225-4031 225-0563
Wyden, Ron(OR) 225-4811 225-8941
Hall, Ralph(TX) 225-6673 225-3332
Bryant, John(TX) 225-2231 225-0327
Boucher, Rick(VA) 225-3861 225-0442
ninthnet@hr.house.gov
Manton, Tom(NY) 225-3965 225-1909
tmanton@hr.house.gov
Towns, Edolphus(NY) 225-5061 225-1018
Studds, Gerry(MA) 225-3111 225-2212
Pallone, Frank(NJ) 225-4671 225-9665
Brown, Sherrod(OH) 225-3401 225-2266
Lambert Lincoln,Blanche(AR) 225-4076 225-4654
Gordon, Bart(TN) 225-4231 225-6887
Furse, Elizabeth(OR) 225-0855 225-9497
Deutsch, Peter(FL) 225-7931 225-8456
Rush, Bobby(IL) 225-4372 226-0333
Eshoo, Anna(GA) 225-8104 225-8890
annagram@hr.house.gov
Klink, Ron(PA) 225-2565 226-2274
Also, Council to the
House, Michael Regan 226-2447
_______________________________________________________________________________
| W. Curtiss Priest, Ph.D., Director *********************** |
| Center for Information, Technology, & Society * Improving humanity * |
| * through technology * |
| 466 Pleasant Street *********************** |
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