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Trade Group Wants FCC to Get With the Times

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Trade Group Wants FCC to Get With the Times

 
October 09, 2014

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  By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor
 


The U.S. Telecom Association recently filed a petition with the FCC (News - Alert) urging it to basically get with the times and lift some of what they consider “archaic” regulations that date back to an era of monopoly phone service. The gist of the petition says that these old regulations only serve as an obstruction to investments in high-speed networks, thus slowing down the deployment of advanced services.


The trade organization cited a February speech from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (News - Alert) in its petition with the goal to get the FCC on board, posing it in such a way that highlights the increased competition between cable and wireless companies.

“Due in part to outdated rules," Wheeler said, “the majority of the capital investments made by U.S. telephone companies from 2006 to 2011 went toward maintaining the declining telephone network, despite the fact that only one-third of U.S. households use it at all."

The petition includes several positions of the current regulations that cause problems with innovation and advancing technology.

"It identifies specific barriers to investment in advanced telecommunications technology, impediments to more robust broadband competition, and disincentives to deployment of new Internet infrastructure that the Commission can eliminate through regulatory forbearance – in precisely the way Congress intended by enacting Section 706 as a tool for accelerating the availability of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans," the petition states.

President-CEO of USTelecom (News - Alert) Walter McCormick said to reporters that, in alignment with Wheeler’s statement, "the future regulatory environment should be one that is based upon the world as it exists today," according to a story in The Hill. "That is sort of like the overall theme we think public policy should move towards. This petition is a little tiny baby step in that direction."

Regulations that require providers maintain traditional networks are also on the request list to hit the chopping block.  Investment in telecommunications is a necessary step for communities for business growth. With so many areas in the U.S. lacking in broadband, firms are answering the call by investing in the necessary infrastructure.

Congress in the past has made a clear choice to prefer competition over regulation when it enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act’s stated goal is "to provide for a pro-competitive, de-regulatory national policy framework designed to accelerate rapidly private sector deployment of advanced information technologies and services to all Americans by opening all telecommunications markets to competition."

The Telecom Act provided a much-needed dose of competition into the traditional landline world, but the fact remains that telecommunications is still widely regulated, and thus USTelecom is asking for a change. The full text of the petition can be found on USTelecom’s site. 




Edited by Rory J. Thompson
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