Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 17, 1994 TAG: 9409200041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Boucher, speaking at a regional development meeting at Virginia Tech, said telecommunications bills before Congress would stimulate competition among telephone, cable TV and other communications companies and therefore open up opportunities for the region. Boucher is a sponsor in the House.
Boucher outlined his efforts to push for the first major communications-law reforms since 1934. The goals, he said, are to build up the market forces that would encourage firms to invest in new, interactive fiber-optic networks and to boost consumer access to such networks while ensuring fair prices.
"It matters to us as a region," Boucher said. "Because we will be even more closely tied" to regional, statewide, national and international information sources.
"The communications that will come with that will help to integrate many rural parts of the nation more into the mainstream of American and international life," he said.
Fiber-optic networks could make Western Virginia a hospitable place for communications businesses, such as reservations centers for airlines, hotel chains and car rental firms. Bell Atlantic already has two directory assistance centers in the 9th District, including one in Pulaski that handles calls from Washington, D.C.
Boucher said economic development officials should be talking to companies that could relocate communications operations from major cities to take advantage of Western Virginia's lower wages, lower cost of business, strong work ethic and quality of life.
Meanwhile, Boucher hopes the General Assembly will launch a study this winter of ways the state could chip in on the cost of linking the 83 universities, community colleges and high schools in his district in fiber-optic networks.
A nonprofit corporation funded by two federal agencies has spent about $3 million to buy equipment to begin the network, but local governments have to pay for the telephone lines, and many cannot afford it. Boucher would like to see the state pay for the lines as part of its educational agenda.
At $1,500 a month per site, that would cost $1.5 million a year in the 9th District alone. But with the networks, students at isolated public schools will be able to take advanced courses via television. Instead of just seeing a teacher on a screen, however, the teacher will see the students, too, and they will be able to communicate back and forth.
Eventually, the networks could be used for job retraining or by businesses for teleconferences.
In unrelated remarks later, Boucher opposed U.S. military involvement in Haiti and rejected his re-election foe's claims that private polling shows Boucher trailing.
Boucher said he opposes an invasion because he believes no vital national interests are at stake and President Clinton lacks an "adequate exit strategy."
by CNB