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Media InformationArchived Press ReleasesU.S. House of representatives considers Telecom BillFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 03 May 2001 WASHINGTON, DC -- The Telecommunications Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is currently considering HR 1542, or the "Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001." A number of the bill's provisions are of deep concern to those who wish to maintain open access to the Internet. The Telecommunications Subcommittee approved "HR 1542" on Thursday, 26 April. Mark-up by the full Commerce Committee is expected in the next few days. The "Tauzin-Dingell Broadband Bill," as it is popularly known, makes significant changes in the regulatory framework for Internet applications and broadband in the legacy telecom regulatory framework. The Bill would allow the Bell operating companies to offer broadband related services to their customers without most of the regulatory restraints that now exist. To the extent that the Bell operating companies are currently barred from offering long distance voice services, the Bill bars them from offering IP based voice services over high speed data services on the Internet. It should be noted that this prohibition does not prevent the customers from using their data service for IP based voice service. It only prevents the Bell companies from offering and making separate charges for such service. Most importantly, the bill deregulates the prices that can be charged by the Bell companies for access to their networks and eliminates certain access provisions that have made Bell facilities available, on reasonable terms, to the competitive operating companies. The Internet Society believe that these provisions may serve to remove the regulatory restraints on the Bell companies in a manner which could detrimentally affect the ability of smaller firms to compete. The Internet Society fully supports open competition and deregulation of the telecommunications market, but urges Congress and the FCC to achieve these goals in a manner that offers telecom customers a realistic competitive array of service providers. Also, it is the long-standing position of the Internet Society that applications of the Internet should remain unregulated. Although the Bill's ban on certain offerings of IP based voice services may be well intentioned and of limited application, the principle of regulating a particular application by a particular class of service providers is a dangerous precedent. The Internet Society encourages full consideration of the implications of the threats to Internet freedom should this bill be successful in passing without substantive amendment. The full text of the bill and its legislative history is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/. About ISOC: ISOC provides an international forum to address the most important economic, political, social, ethical and legal initiatives influencing the evolution of the Internet. This includes facilitating discussions on key policy decisions such as taxation, copyright protection, privacy and confidentiality, and initiatives towards self-governance of the Internet. ISOC created the Internet Societal Task Force as an on-going forum for discussion, debate, and development of position papers, white papers, and statements on Internet related societal issues. ISOC is the organizational home of the International Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the Internet Engineering Steering Group, and the Internet Research Task Force - the standards setting and research arms of the Internet community. These organizations operate in an environment of bottom-up consensus building made possible through the participation of thousands of people from throughout the world. Contact:
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