Lawmakers Debate Bandwidth Logjam

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April 22, 1998 (4:46 PM EDT)

By Mary Mosquera,

Local phone companies traded barbs with their long-distance competitors at a Senate hearing Wednesday, on whether the Baby Bells should be exempt from certain regulations, so they can offer high-speed broadband services such as Internet access.

Meanwhile, demand for advanced Internet access is expected to skyrocket to more than 15 million households by 2003, according to the Economic Strategy Institute.

Telecommunications carriers of all stripes -- local, long-distance, satellite, and competitive local exchange carriers -- and Washington policy makers testified before the Senate Commerce committee about how to break through the existing logjam caused by swelling data traffic.

Even the landmark 1996 Telecommunications Act is under fire, its constitutionality is being tested now in the courts. This uncertain regulatory environment has hindered investment in the infrastructure needed to provide advanced connectivity services, and the Federal Communications Commission is considering waiving some of those regulations to spur such investment.

The telecom law mandated advanced telecommunications services should be made available to all Americans "in a reasonable and timely fashion." But Baby Bells say regulations barring them from providing long-distance service make putting money into new technologies, such as digital subscriber loop, unprofitable.

But the long-distance carriers say waiving regulations would give the Bells an unfair advantage. The Bells will then "trade in their existing monopoly over traditional telephony services, for a new monopoly over both traditional and advanced telecommunications services," warned Ellwood Kerkeslager, head of technology and infrastructure at AT&T.

Since high-speed connections can also carry voice communications, "Once a home or business purchases such access connections, there is no need for it to maintain a separate telephone line," Kerkeslager said.