==================================================== ################ ############# ################ ## # ## ############# ## ### # ### ### # # # ## # ### ### ## # # # # # # # # ## # # # # ## ## # ## # # # ## ## ## # # ### # ## # # # # # # # ## # ## # # # # ## ### ### ### ### # # # ## # ### # ==================================================== Free Speech Media, LLC August 6, 1995 Number 11 6 pages ==================================================== Compiled, written, and edited by Coralee Whitcomb Please direct comments and inquiries to cwhitcom@bentley.edu ==================================================== The Telecom Post is posted to several distribution lists and is also available from the CPSR listserv. To subscribe, send to LISTSERV@CPSR.ORG with the message SUBSCRIBE TELECOM-POST YOUR NAME. The Telecom Post will be published weekly while the U.S. Congress works on a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S information delivery systems. ====================================================== TOPICS HR 1555 - We lose HR1555 The Bad and the Ugly HR 1555, The Communications Act of 1995 passed the House on August 4 by a vote of 305-117. The Congress then broke for their summer recess and will reconvene in four weeks. The schedule for the arrival of HR1555 to the House floor was under considerable question last week as it collided with the need to deal with a series of appropriations bills. Appropriations bills must be on the President's desk by October 1 in order for the government to stay in business. Given the drastic revisions to many programs in these bills, and the last minute and highly controversial changes to HR 1555, it appeared that the American public would have another month to learn and consider the implications of an information overhaul. But that was not to be. Commerce Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-VA), a supporter of the "checklist" language for Bell entry into long distance requiring "facilities-based" competition "comparable in price, features and scope" apparently caved into pressure by subcommittee member Jack Fields (R-TX) and Speaker Gingrich. In a reversal of the spirit of that language, he offered an amendment (the 66 page Managers Amendment covering 42 sections of the bill) changing it to allow the definition of adequate competition to include the resale of services of another carrier. This drastically softens the test needed to prove that competition exists and shortens dramatically the wait Bells have for entry into long distance. It served to reverse the support of the long distance industry to absolute opposition. Many of you are aware of the campaign subsequently launched by AT&T to drum up support for defeat of the bill. On Wednesday, August 2, at midnight, the House agreed by a vote of 255 to 156 to debate the HR 1555 under a modified closed rule. This allowed for nine hours of debate and a set list of amendments to be considered. Specific time allowances were given for the debate on each amendment and a Thursday, August 3 date was set. An amendment proposed by Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Connie Morella (R-MD), and William Orton (D-VT) to provide affordable telecommunications for schools and rural hospitals was denied entry into the debate on the grounds that a satisfactory funding mechanism did not exist. (Though Bliley is reported to have assured Rep. Morella that the conference committee proceedings on S652 and HR1555 would allow for the S652, Snowe/Rockefeller language to be considered.) Disgust was expressed by several members of the House over debating a bill of such importance in the middle of the night and out of sight of the public. Rep. Marcy Kaptur said "I feel tonight as I did during the savings and loan debate...that we are truly being muzzled, and that is not what representative democracy is all about. I feel sorry for America tonight." Vice President Gore issued a statement on August 3 saying The telecommunications reform legislation being considered by the House of Representatives is abhorrent to the public interest and our national economic well-being. Without significant changes to the legislation, the President has said he will be compelled to veto it. In the early morning hours, the House today began debate on HR1555. They are expected to vote late tonight on the bill. It seems the House does not want the American people to see or hear what's in this legislation -- and for good reason. They couldn't support it if they knew what HR 1555 contained. One person owning the majority of the media outlets in a community is a threat to the very system of democracy upon which our society is built. And it is wrong. Raising cable rates on American consumers immediately _after_ the next elections to avoid responsibility is wrong. Replacing competition with consolidation in the cable and phone industries is wrong. Preventing parents from having simple and cheap technologies to block explicit sex and excessive violence from coming into their living rooms to young children is wrong. Unfortunately, HR 1555, as reported by the Commerce Committee and amended by the managers' amendment, does all these things. This bill has been sold to the highest bidder in every telecommunications industry. The losers are the American people. Deliberations were set forth to allow general debate for 90 minutes and then a limited number of amendments considered one after the other with five minutes allotted to the pro and con arguments for each. The results: Manager's Amendment -passed 256-149 The following is a summary of the most controversial proposals from Rep. Blilely's memo to the Commerce Committee. 1. Resale The Bell company has a duty to provide resale at wholesale costs. Wholesale costs are defined as retail less all avoided costs, including marketing, bulling and collection, etc. 2. Facilities Based Competitor In order for the Bell company to meet the checklist, there must be facilities based competitor providing local telephone service, either exclusively or predominantly over the competitor's network - resale would not qualify. For purposes of this test, cellular service does not qualify as local telephone services. 3. Separate Subsidiary Once a Bell company is authorized to provide long distance, it must do so through a separate subsidiary for a period of eighteen months. 4. FCC Rulemaking The FCC must complete its rulemaking relevant to the checklist within six months. At the end of six months, provided that the FCC has promulgated its rules, the Bell company may seek entry into long distance. In addition to the anti-competitive implications of these provisions, the process used to insert the Manager's Amendment can be seen as subverting the legislative process. This lengthy and complex amendment was introduced at the eleventh hour and reversed much of what had been accomplished in committee. The ability to subvert the committee structure so brutally calls into question the viability and reliability of the congressional process. Stupak amendment - passed 338-86, a clarification of the right of local communities to manage public right-of-way and require fair and reasonable compensation for the use of those rights-of-way. Conyers amendment - defeated 151-271, requiring the approval of the Attorney General for Bell entry into long distance unless the AG found there was a "dangerous probability" that the Bell would "successfully use market power to substantially impede competition." This amendment would enhance Rep. Hyde's (R-IL) provision in the Manager's Amendment of a role for the Department of Justice in approving long distance entry. Cox/Wyden amendment - passed 420-4, leaving to private industry the responsibility of a "clean Internet" and providing liability protection to those service providers who take steps to keep it clean. It bars the FCC from any role in determining content standards for the Internet. Markey/Shays amendment - defeated 148-275, would have prohibited cable operators facing no effective competition from raising rates beyond the Consumer Price Index, on a per channel basis and limited the exemption from price controls for cable systems of under 10,000, subscribers, lowered the threshold under which the FCC would undertake a rate review to 10 subscribers, and required cable operators to charge uniform rates within a franchise area. This would have inserted a bit of re-regulation of the cable industry. The Manager's Amendment allows for an increase in rates in order to finance capital improvements to their system 15 months after enactment. Markey/Klink amendment - passed 228-195, limiting broadcast ownership to a 35% cap on national viewership. (down from 50%). Markey/Burton amendment defeated then passed, requiring the V chip but not a mandatory rating system. At first it was defeated but Markey countered with a recommittal motion - which forces an up/down vote and never works. It won! Some good news: Language in the original bill that provides for an outlet for the public voice did survive the chaos of the last week. According to Barry Forbes, president of the Alliance for Community Media, As passed, HR 1555 provides the PEG (public, education, and government) center programming will be carried on so-called 'video dialtone' networks to the same extent that they are currently available on cable systems. 'video dialtone' is similar to cable in that it would provide video programming over coaxial or fiber-optic wirelines. Unlike cable, where programming is selected exclusively by the cable operating company, video dialtone channel capacity would have to be offered to any person or entity that wanted it. Friday, August 4 the Communications Act of 1995 was passed 305-117. The Regional Bell Operating Companies are delighted. The lobbying efforts of industry are tallied at $20 million for this legislation. The next step in the process is creating a joint committee made up of Commerce committee member of both the House and Senate. The number and members of this committee will be chosen by the Committees' leadership. New, joint language will be crafted outside of public view and then submitted to both sides for passage. The President's threatened veto has lost some of its punch with the wide margins in both House and Senate votes, however, there are many differences between the two bills yet to be hammered out. My 2 cents You are aware, better than the greater American public, of the dire implications of this bill. I've often wondered why, in all our discussion, we have not reminded the world of the basic concept that knowledge is power and knowledge is made up of information. Military strategists are well aware that the cleanest method of disabling the enemy is to destroy its ability to produce and deliver information. The passage of this bill is no different. The concentration of information production and delivery into the hands of an ever-shrinking population of information providers accomplishes the same thing. And as goes control of information so goes the locus of power. It would appear that our government officials know this. The Internet community rose to the challenge in a new and organized fashion - yet was largely ignored. The mere fact that there is a truly effective and low cost method of information delivery and public expression seems to have been disregarded by its very nature, as evidenced by the low regard for email messages. Yet big industry lobbyists, with big bucks to ease _their_ efforts, were able to control the entire debate. Had a grassroots, non-Internet effort, equal to the Internet effort been developed - would they have listened? Will we, as the Internet community, have a chance, in the future, to incorporate the rest of the citizenry into the world of electronic communications and activism so that the American public, as a whole, will serve as a voice in the future? I believe, that in the month to come, we must craft a message and a delivery system for that message that will make the world outside of the Internet community, immediately aware of what is at stake. We must simplify the issues and develop scenarios of the likely nightmares this legislation will bring. And we must work to reclaim the role the American people were meant to play in the democratic process. ============= X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) &TOTSE 510/935-5845 Walnut Creek, CA Taipan Enigma Burn This Flag 408/363-9766 San Jose, CA Zardoz realitycheck 415/666-0339 San Francisco, CA Poindexter Fortran Governed Anarchy 510/226-6656 Fremont, CA Eightball New Dork Sublime 805/823-1346 Tehachapi, CA Biffnix Lies Unlimited 801/278-2699 Salt Lake City, UT Mick Freen Atomic Books 410/669-4179 Baltimore, MD Baywolf Sea of Noise 203/886-1441 Norwich, CT Mr. Noise The Dojo 713/997-6351 Pearland, TX Yojimbo Frayed Ends of Sanity 503/965-6747 Cloverdale, OR Flatline The Ether Room 510/228-1146 Martinez, CA Tiny Little Super Guy Hacker Heaven 860/456-9266 Lebanon, CT The Visionary The Shaven Yak 510/672-6570 Clayton, CA Magic Man El Observador 408/372-9054 Salinas, CA El Observador Cool Beans! 415/648-7865 San Francisco, CA G.A. 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