roundtable: Open Platform letter to Markey

roundtable: Open Platform letter to Markey

Open Platform letter to Markey

Daniel J. Weitzner (djw@eff.org)
Mon, 14 Feb 1994 15:46:33 -0600 

Message-Id: <199402142047.PAA20464@eff.org>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 15:46:33 -0600
To: roundtable@cni.org
From: djw@eff.org (Daniel J. Weitzner)
Subject: Open Platform letter to Markey

EFF Open Platform Sign-on Letter to Markey

We're sending this letter to all organizations in the TPR seeking support
for the Open Platform sections of the Markey/Fields bill (HR 3636).  The
Open Platform sections require the FCC to determine how best to make
available affordable digital services that would provide access to
multimedia (voice, data & video) information services.  EFF believes that
in the midst of vertical integration of cable/telephone companies,
availability of Open Platform services is critical to ensure a diversity of
information sources on the National Information Infrastructure.  

A Roundtable meeting will be held Tuesday February 15 from 12-2pm to
discuss the Open Platform sections of the Markey bill.

If you support the Open Platform concept, we hope your organization will
sign this letter.

For more information, please contact me by email or telephone.

Danny Weitzner <djw@eff.org>
Senior Staff Counsel
EFF

202-347-5400 (v)
202-393-5509 (f)


============

February __, 1994

Hon. Edward Markey, Chairman
House Telecommunications & Finance Subcommittee
316 Ford House Office Building
Washington, DC  20150


Dear Chairman Markey,

        We want to thank you for efforts and foresight in support of the
Open Platform sections of HR 3636.  We share your  belief that to achieve
the full potential of the new information superhighways, we need to make
available Open Platform services which reach all American homes, schools,
libraries, government institutions and businesses at affordable rates.  

        Congressional action is critical to promote affordable access to
Open Platform services.  Despite rapid digitization of local exchange
networks, local telephone companies have been very slow to actually tariff
digital services for the residential market.  The technical facilities are
in place to offer this service, but the carriers refuse to tariff it. 
Congressional action is required to break this logjam.

        All of the undersigned public interest organizations fully support
the Open Platform sections of HR 3636 and pledge to work with you and your
colleagues throughout the legislative process to strengthened these
provisions and ensure their enactment this year.  

*       Open Platform Services will deliver useful applications soon and at
affordable prices

        As potential users of Open Platform services, we know that many of
the multimedia services which will help increase educational opportunity in
our schools, provide access to library resources, enable distance learning,
and support telecommuting, can be delivered over a family of transport
technologies that are available today.  HR 3636 is carefully crafted to
make Open Platform services as widely available as possible, while ensuring
that only those consumers that use the services pay for them.  We believe
that these services have tremendous benefits to offer, but also believe
that it is critical to protect consumers from paying for advanced services
that they have no individual need for.

*       The switched, many-to-many character of Open Platform services is
critical to promote diversity of information sources a democratic
marketplace of ideas

        Open Platform services enable any user on the network to reach any
other user or information source on the network, without having to pass
through any bottlenecks that might be erected by vertically integrated
network operators.  Today, many carriers are only building capacity for
primarily one-way services such as video-on-demand, home shopping, and 500
channels of entertainment.  Open Platform architecture is a strong
safeguard against anticompetitive behavior and will promote the First
Amendment goal of access to a diversity of information sources.

*       Open Platform services will be financed exclusively by those who
use the services

        The Open Platform sections of HR 3636 provide that service
deployment must be economically feasible and must be based on the
"reasonably identifiable cost" of providing the service.  Thus, only those
who use the service will pay for its operation.  Basic voice telephone rate
payers will be unharmed by this provision.  Testimony presented to the
subcommittee has shown that Open Platform services can be financed by those
who use the service and deployed without requiring additional large capital
outlays by telecommunications providers.  

*       Open Platform services section of HR 3636 does not mandate a technology

        We want to stress that the Open Platform sections of the bill only
set minimum, not maximum functional requirements, nothing in the bill would
hinder such investments, provided the networks planned offer switched
broadband or narrowband access.  Nothing in the language of HR 3636
mandates any particular technology such as narrowband ISDN.  ISDN is only
one of many technologies that could be used to provide Open Platform
services.  Other possibilities include ADSL and higher capacity switched
services.  We believe that broadband services will offer significant
benefits in the future, especially when they become truly affordable.  By
the same token, we do not believe that Americans should have to wait a
decade of more to begin to realize the benefit of information age services.


*       Open Platform services will not slow down broadband deployment

        Some have attempted to characterize the Open Platform requirements
as a distraction from the construction of broadband networks.  We believe
it is just the opposite.  The primary problem that network operators face
in building new infrastructure is the worry that even if they build it,
there is no guarantee that anyone will come.  Open Platform services will
build demand for new applications, creating market demand for broadband
network capacity.

        Some of the undersigned organizations are seeking other changes in
HR 3636, but we all believe that Open Platform services will be a critical
element of making the National Information Infrastructure open and
accessible to all Americans.  Again, we commend you and your colleagues for
supporting the Open Platform services sections and promise to work with you
to ensure passage of HR 3636 with strong Open Platform provisions.


Sincerely,

**************************************************************************
Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping
tom to install your window blinds.    - John Perry Barlow, EFF co-founder

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is working to protect your privacy.  To
help stop Clipper and eliminate export controls on cryptography, support a
bill introduced in the House of Representatives, HR 3627.  To support the
bill, send email to <cantwell@eff.org>.

......................................................................
Daniel J. Weitzner, Senior Staff Counsel              <djw@eff.org>
Electronic Frontier Foundation                        202-347-5400 (v) 
1001 G St, NW  Suite 950 East                         202-393-5509 (f)
Washington, DC 20001

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