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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 19, 1994                   TAG: 9407210026
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHIEF TRAVELS ABROAD TO DISCUSS LINKS

He was bound for Russia, where he would try to persuade his counterpart to introduce competition into the Russian telecommunication market. Among other things, ``I am, tomorrow morning, going to talk to him about the Blacksburg Electronic Village.''

But that item, about how an entire community is linking itself together and to the world via computer, phone lines and the Internet, undoubtedly will be a small part of a broader discussion on how the telecommunication market - and the legislation governing it - is changing in the United States.

``Today the communication market does not offer enough choice,'' said Hundt, who spoke at a conference held at Virginia Tech. With competition, ``the big winners will be the American economy and the American consumer.''

Following Hundt, a panel of representatives from the telephone, cellular, cable TV and newspaper industries talked about what the potential of telecommunication advances means to them.

All are interested in legislation that would allow telephone companies to provide cable TV services and permit cable television companies to delve into the telephone market.

``We are at an absolutely crucial period in time,'' said Jim Cullen, president of Bell Atlantic. ``We're talking about creating a [market] pie that is so much bigger than anything we have experienced.''

But without reform, ``cable operators have no hope of mounting a real competitive challenge to the phone companies,'' said June Travis, executive vice president of the Cable Television Association.

The House of Representatives already has passed a reform bill; a Senate subcommittee is considering one.

``We are now on the brink of the largest reform of our nation's telecommunications laws'' since the landmark Communications Act of 1934, said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, who for years has championed the case for telecommunication reform.