ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Congress is expected to pass legislation today that will dramatically alter the way Americans communicate with each other and use television.
The 280-page bill, which President Clinton has promised to sign, will give consumers a choice of local telephone service providers, ban obscene material from the Internet computer network and allow new media conglomerates to rise.
It also is expected to permit cable television service charges to rise and provide technology that could be used to block children's access to adult TV programming.
Overall, the bill's most significant effect on consumers will be to change their range of choices for operator of their home telephone, cable TV service, mobile phone network, on-line computer connection and a host of other services.
Most companies are now prohibited from selling more than one or two of these services. But with the bill, consumers will find several competitors offering them one-stop shopping for their telecommunications.
Experts say it is likely to take months or even years for consumers to see the effects of the bill's complex provisions, worked out in three years of negotiations.
That's because the bill is really a framework for moving from today's segmented market to a wide-open market in which companies can offer nearly any kind of communications service they choose to any customer they want, at whatever price the market will bear.
Working out the complex details of the revolution is expected to take time. Pacific Bell, for example, predicts that it will take 13 to 18 months from the bill's enactment until it can offer long-distance service.
``Most people won't see the effects of most of this for a couple of years,'' says Gary Arlen, a telecommunications analyst in Bethesda, Md.
Proponents of the legislation predict that competition will lower prices and make it profitable for companies to offer new kinds of services.
The bill also creates a new kind of ``universal service,'' which includes access to the information highway.
The legislation has an enormous potential impact on the nation's economy.
Proponents predict the increased competition will create a huge market that will spawn new companies and create thousands of jobs.
The bill also could radically alter the power structure in the communications and media industries, because it removes many restrictions on how many TV and radio stations a single company can own.
It also lifts prohibitions on the cross-ownership of businesses by a single company, such as a local phone company buying a cable TV supplier in the same geographic area.
Between the framework and reality, however, runs a bumpy road.
``It'll be a holy mess coming out the other side,'' says one high-tech lobbyist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``But I don't know if this could have been done any other way.''
Before consumers get one-stop shopping, federal agencies must draft mountains of regulations.
The measure, for example, gives the Federal Communications Commission responsibility for crafting a host of regulations governing telephone service and allows the agency six months to write them.
The FCC also is required to resolve disputes among communications competitors when state regulators fail to solve the problem. With its budget under attack by congressional Republicans, and already trimmed $10 million from last year, the agency's chairman has expressed concerns about the effect of the bill's requirements.
The Justice Department must advise the FCC whether a local telephone company's application to enter the long-distance business might violate antitrust laws. Attorneys there will have to make their decision - to which the FCC must accord ``substantial weight'' - sometime within the 90 days Congress has allotted the FCC to approve or disapprove each application.
Along with that, the Justice Department will have to scrutinize a host of expected mergers and acquisitions in the telecommunications arena for antitrust violations. And it will maintain its role in investigating complaints from consumers and businesses about such violations.
While Justice officials said they will be able to meet all the deadlines imposed on them by the bill, the task is not expected to be easy.
``I anticipate we will be quite busy, and busy in a number of areas,'' says David Turetsky, deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division.
``I imagine we will be hearing charges from people who seek to enter the market and compete that there are things going on that are antitrust violations.''
Congress also may consider amending the bill later this year to address lingering concerns of some members. Several legislators in the past few days have suggested work should continue this year on the division of the nation's airwaves, copyright rules for digital information, the rules for setting telecommunications rates, restrictions on violent and obscene material, and several technical matters.
States and cities also face challenges in implementing the bill's provisions. States are required to mediate disputes between companies that want to enter a phone or cable market, and their competitors that must sell them essential services.
States also must determine who qualifies for the discount rates mandated for so-called ``universal service,'' and what those rates will be.
But states and cities also are prohibited from enacting laws to bar companies from competing in the telecommunications business, or taxing many services.
All that pressure should result in a series of ``donnybrooks'' between state regulators and companies, said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a veteran of telecommunications reform efforts.
Some analysts and companies also expect numerous court challenges to both the new regulations and any decisions the FCC makes to grant companies the right to offer various services.
They said companies will try to hold onto their turf and turn the regulations to their advantage - and most of them have a history of using the courts to settle grievances.
Legal challenges aren't the only likely stumbling block. In many cases, companies haven't built the complex communications networks they'll need to provide all the fancy new services, a time- and money-consuming task.
Perhaps the most daunting task of all for companies will be figuring out how to market all this to consumers without confusing them.
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by KRT. color.by CNB