ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994                   TAG: 9406290133
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOUCHER HOPES BILL LINKING TV, PHONES WILL PASS SENATE

A bill allowing telephone companies to offer cable TV service over their networks, sponsored by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Boucher said the bill would create competition within the cable TV industry and local telephone services by allowing TV companies and other telephone providers into that market.

The Senate now will take up the legislation. Boucher was optimistic that it would be approved and signed by President Clinton.

If that happens, he said, it will promote lower prices and more varied service for cable and telephone customers alike.

``Competition clearly works,'' he said. ``In the approximately 50 communities throughout the U.S. that now have more than one provider of cable service, the rates tend to be 30 percent lower than the national average. The legislation we have approved today will allow the rest of the country to benefit from the lower rates which result from increased competition.''

He said the legislation would create the world's most modern communications network.

``The legislation will advance the nation's information infrastructure,'' he said, ``by giving communications companies the business reasons to install fiber-optic lines, high-capacity switches and other broad-band technology throughout local networks.

``An avalanche of new business investment will occur as communications companies upgrade their networks to offer telephone service, television and data over the same lines.''

Improvements in the nation's information infrastructure will usher in changes in delivery of health care and educational services to remote areas, Boucher said.

``By utilizing fiber-optic technology,'' he said, ``health care providers will be able to render instant diagnoses, instantly transmit patient records and billing information and remotely monitor patients' vital signs. This, in turn, will lead to an increased degree of freedom for patients who today must be treated in more confined settings.

``Likewise, the expansion of electronic classrooms, the digitizing of libraries and the assemblage in a readily retrievable form of the vast stores of government information will be another near-term effect of an improved network.''

Rep.hopesSenate

will approve bill

linking TV, phones 


 by CNB