Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 5, 1995 TAG: 9508070102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
Wrapping up a month of furious action, the House approved legislation Friday that would revise telecommunications policy for the 21st century, changing the way telephone and TV services are provided and what Americans pay for them.
The chamber voted 305-117 to rewrite the nation's telecommunications laws - the most dramatic change in policy in 61 years. The passage came shortly after the House, in a stunning defeat for the TV networks, approved an amendment requiring TV set makers to install a device, called a V-chip, that will let parents block violent and sexy shows on television.
Asked who big winners and losers are under the bill he largely wrote, Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, R-Richmond, said, ``Consumers win overwhelmingly. I don't know that there are any losers in our legislation.'' He predicted that customers' cable and telephone rates will decrease.
But Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who led an effort to put more teeth in the bill, disagreed. ``This is a bad bill,'' Markey said. ``Cable consumers have no protection from rate gouging. There are still many media-concentration issues that have yet to be addressed.''
President Clinton has threatened to veto the bill unless major changes are made. Greg Simon, domestic policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore, said after the vote that despite some improvements in the bill - notably a provision to lessen media concentration - the veto threat still stands. He cited problems with the bill's cable, local media and long-distance telephone provisions.
The bill would free cable TV and local and long-distance telephone companies to get into each other's businesses, offering Americans greater choice and potentially lower prices. Opponents say the bill would benefit a few big companies and lead to increases in cable and telephone rates.
The Senate passed a similar bill in June. But the House bill goes much further in deregulating cable rates and removing local ownership restrictions on media companies, prompting Clinton's veto threat. To become law, the House and Senate versions would have to be reconciled and passed by both chambers and then signed by Clinton.
In an administration victory, the House, 228-195, adopted an amendment by Markey that would bar any single media company from owning TV stations reaching more than 35 percent of all U.S. viewers, down from 50 percent the bill originally had called for. The provision is now identical to the Senate's.
Markey also authored the V-chip amendment, which passed 224-199. The chip, which would be installed in new sets, recognizes programs that are electronically rated for violence, sex or other objectionable content. It is identical to the Senate version.
The TV networks say the V-chip would cut into their audience - and thus advertising revenues. They had sought to avoid the issue by having the House vote instead for a study of the industry's response to objectionable programming.
Earlier in the day, the House approved, 256-149, a package of amendments that included provisions that would make it easier for the regional Bell companies to get into the $68 billion-a-year long-distance business.
The bill's supporters - including the Bell companies and cable companies - say it would benefit consumers and U.S. business. They say it would boost investment in the $700 billion American telecommunications industry, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, spur innovative systems and eventually lower rates for cable, telephone and other services.
Opponents - including consumer groups and long-distance companies such as AT&T, MCI and Sprint - say the bill will help business at the expense of consumers because true competition will take years to evolve, if it ever does. In addition, they assert that insufficient safeguards will let cable and telephone rates increase, allow Bell companies to use their local phone monopolies to block competitors and allow a few big companies to dominate news, entertainment and communications.
As for cable, the bill would deregulate most rates for small cable systems upon enactment, then lift price rules for all other systems within 15 months.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, has been a leader for many years in congressional efforts to rewrite telecommunications law. Boucher said he was "very pleased" with Friday's vote.
Boucher said a House-Senate conference committee needs to devise ways to protect consumers from TV cable rate increases until competitive services have time to get up and running.
The conference committee should take up the legislation in September, and Boucher predicts Congress with nearly 3-to-1 support in both houses will give final passage to the legislation and it will be signed by Clinton before the year is out.
Ultimately, the legislation will benefit consumers by lowering prices and spurring the creation of a greater variety of telecommunications services, Boucher said. The nation as a whole, he said, also will benefit as the phone companies run coaxial or fiberoptic cable into homes to replace their traditional twisted copper wire that is incapable of carrying television signals and as cable TV companies install switches on their systems to make them capable of carrying more services.
That's how the information superhighway will be built, Boucher said.
Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, and L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, also voted for the bill.
The chairman of Bell Atlantic, a major local telephone service provider in Virginia and other mid-Atlantic states, also was pleased. He said the bill was "far from perfect," though, and Bell Atlantic looked forward to working with the conference committee.
"What prevailed today in the House was competition, not protection," Bell Atlantic chairman Raymond Smith said.
Staff writer Greg Edwards contributed information to this story.
by CNB