The bill reflects 15 months of detailed consultations between industry and the disability community, McCormick said. The proposed bill addresses the industry’s shift to IP-based communications. Among its highlights are enforcement procedures that would put remedies for noncompliance on a fast track; Lifeline and Linkup support for Internet access services for those who meet those programs’ eligibility requirements; and establishment of a committee to provide advice to the Federal Communications Commission and Congress on steps needed to ensure interoperable real time text communications in a national IP-enabled network for public safety.

“What our industry has found in the course of the last 25 years is that both we and the disabled community benefit from the certainty and focus that a sound and sensible legal roadmap for achieving accessibility provides,” McCormick said. “We believe that with such a roadmap, talented engineers and business people across the Internet landscape will respond in good faith to the challenge.” With Americans becoming increasingly reliant on communications devices and networks in their daily lives, it is essential that people with disabilities have access to the latest technologies.

USTelecom CEO Walter B. McCormick Jr. applauded the bill’s release:

“We applaud Congressmen Lewis, Heller, Connolly and Thompson for introducing this important bill to completely repeal the federal excise tax on communications services.  While the courts have found much of the tax to be unenforceable, consumers who subscribe to standalone telephone service – most often lower income or elderly customers – are still penalized by this regressive, outdated tax.  There is strong bipartisan support for repealing the federal excise tax on communications and we will work closely with Congress to end the tax this year.”

With interest high and details fluid as the backdrop, USTelecom’s VP of Policy, Dave Cohen gave an excellent overview of the current state-of-play of the stimulus package as it relates to broadband deployment. Dave covered the RUS and NTIA programs that will be managing the monies allocated to broadband deployments. Joining USTelecom on this webinar was Raquel Noriega from ConnectedNation.org. Raquel gave an overview of how broadband mapping will play a role in deployments that rely on stimulus funding.

Miss the webinar?  It’s now available for on demand viewing.

Today, USTelecom President Walter McCormick sent a letter to members of Congress calling on them to act expeditiously on the matter.  “Failure to act will jeopardize not just the financial industry,” McCormick wrote, “but also the telecommunications industry and our customers.”  Noting the substantial contribution of the broadband industry to the U.S. economy, McCormick continued, “This investment on broadband represents 20% of the nation’s overall private sector investment. This investment in our future – and the productivity enhancements and improvements to the quality of life that it provides – is being put at risk by Congressional inaction.”For the sake of USTelecom’s members, their customers, and the economy, McCormick concludes, “We ask that Congress support bipartisan Congressional leadership efforts to stabilize the nation’s financial markets. It is imperative that you act responsibly, and act now.”

We are very pleased that Congress has acted on this critical legislation that will increase broadband adoption and bring broadband service to underserved and unserved parts of the country. As this legislation acknowledges, using public-private partnerships to accelerate investment and deployment depends on accurate broadband mapping and effective targeting of resources.

USTelecom is pleased to have played a role—through Congressional testimony, work with various members of Congress and their staffs, and advocacy—in the ongoing effort to bring about broadband mapping legislation, which is a critical first step in developing a comprehensive national broadband policy.

Yesterday afternoon, USTelecom CEO Walter McCormick sent a letter to Reps. John Dingell (D – Mich.) and Joe Barton (R – Tex.), the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the committee outlining our concerns. Walter’s letter enumerated ways the bill’s goal of protecting consumers is undermined, including for example, a long and prescriptive list of disclosures that, under the approach contemplated in the bill, must appear on the calling cards themselves. He wrote:

Even if all these disclosures could fit onto a 2-by-3 inch calling card, as the bill requires, they would have to appear in a type size so small that the average consumer would derive little real benefit at all. Moreover, while it is clear from the two recent congressional hearings on this subject that the business practices of our membership in this area are not in question, the bill could subject telecom providers to duplicative and inconsistent regulation and enforcement from two different federal agencies and a multitude of state and local authorities.

In short, USTelecom wants to ensure that the legislation avoids duplicative FTC and FCC regulation and enforcement; inconsistent federal, state, and local enforcement regimes; and impractical disclosure requirements that are unfriendly to consumers.

Last night, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that covers the implementation of the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008.  I spoke a bit about the issue in last week’s Vidcast.  We’re currently looking over the NPRM to see what it includes, and we’ll be sure to give you an update when we’ve finished.The FCC is statutorily obligated to issue regulations to implement the bill no later than October 21, so the agency has abbreviated the standard comment cycle a bit. Comments on the NPRM will be due 12 days after publication in the Federal Register (which has not yet occurred) and replies 20 days.

H.R. 3914, introduced in the House by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), would amend the forbearance section of the ‘96 Telecom Act to remove a provision stating that if the FCC fails to act on a forbearance petition within a one year period (plus a possible 90-day extension), the petition is “deemed granted.” In effect, the bill would remove any statutory consequences for inaction by the FCC within the designated time frame. Congress put this provision in the ’96 Act recognizing that the pace of change in communications required the creation of a path to get quicker review of outdated rules. Traditional carriers use this process, as do newer competitors and wireless companies. Now, with 55 million broadband subscribers, a cable company predicting that it will become the third largest voice company by the end of the year, and people continuing to tradeoff fixed and mobile services, there isn’t any reason left to presume that old regulations serve competition and innovation.

As I told the subcommittee, USTelecom and its members certainly support the goal of improving the forbearance process,[ both through the FCC’s current forbearance proceeding and through the committee’s work]. Everyone wants to ensure that the process achieves its goal of removing regulatory burdens as they become obsolete in the rapidly changing marketplace, while providing competitors and the public with the clarity and transparency they deserve. The subcommittee members were clearly uncomfortable with the possibility that forbearance could be “deemed granted” based on a tied 2-2 vote, as it was on a petition filed by Verizon; they were equally concerned with the lack of transparency and lack of an Order provided by the FCC in that particular case.

The pace of change in communications continues to accelerate in our broadband world. Because of that rapid change, there must be some means for obtaining relatively quick review and elimination of rules and regulations that stand in the way of competition and the public interest; the FCC should have a compelling incentive to act expeditiously on petitions, whether it’s through a deemed granted provision or some other equally effective mechanism. We will work with the subcommittee to address that concern and as well as suggest other improvements to the forbearance process.

You can read my complete written testimony—which includes discussion of pole attachments, phantom traffic, retention marketing, and number porting—here.