TAUZIN READY TO EASE SEC. 271, REFORM FCC, REVIEW DTV RULES
“We need to move the process of Sec. 271 into high gear,” new House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) told us in Wed. interview on his priorities for House session that begins Jan. 30. On none of his core issues was Tauzin ready to propose specific legislation. He said panel would explore several options for getting Bell companies into long distance, depending on FCC cooperation. Tauzin also said he still was unsure how much legislation would be required to reform FCC and how much new agency Chmn. Powell could accomplish on his own. He said he would ask Committee “literally to do a top-down review of the digital [TV] transition,” which he said was “really off track now.”
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Tauzin said there were “a number of approaches” to getting Bell companies into long distance short of simply doing away with Sec. 271, although he pointed out that draft versions of Telecom Act had that clause expiring in 1998, and Bell companies themselves pushed for competition requirements instead because they thought that would be faster. Among options: (1) FCC could streamline Sec. 271 process for approval within states. (2) Bells could be allowed immediately into long distance on commercial side, where “no one debates that there’s competition,” with date certain set for expiration on residential side. (3) Bells could be allowed into long distance for data provision, as Tauzin and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.) proposed last year.
Congress shouldn’t worry about opening Pandora’s Box by tinkering with Telecom Act, Tauzin said: “We can’t be timid about making reforms because we're afraid of what we ourselves might do. If the Act is not working in some areas, we need to have the courage to come in and fix it. We've seen enough about what works in the Act and what doesn’t work.”
Tauzin dismissed worries that CLEC industry would be destroyed through elimination of main incentive for Bells to open their local markets. “The good CLECs are going to survive,” he said. “There’s others that are never going to be facility-based, that are simply trying to ride someone else’s network. The marketplace is going to sort that out.” Tauzin said he saw “competition increase dramatically” in N.Y. and Tex. when Bell companies entered long distance. “The mere acknowledgment that the games are going to end tends to make the good players better,” he said. On reciprocal compensation reform, he said last year “there were real negotiations in the last minute” to craft compromise “that didn’t quite make it. I'm going to encourage those negotiations and see if we can’t work out a compromise this year.” He warned that if FCC didn’t move quickly, “I'm going to be prepared to suggest a solution. I've already sent signals to both sides.”
On FCC reform, Tauzin said he planned to get “quickly on the table” changes in merger review such as bill (HR-4019) proposed by Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) last year. That measure would give FCC 90 days to complete review and prevent it from adopting conditions beyond existing industry rules. He said Congress should “establish some due process” including “reasonable time limits” on review and requirement that agency give “written reasons for refusal to grant a merger.” Tauzin would “prohibit what has become a practice” of requiring companies to agree to “voluntary” conditions.
“Obviously, we want to do a major restructuring of the FCC” that goes beyond merger concerns and accounts for vast changes in the industry since agency’s creation, Tauzin said on theme he has pounded since late last year. “Some [reforms] may come by the FCC’s own reforms, some may require us to legislate,” he said, and “I don’t know yet” what FCC can do on its own. Having Powell installed, he said, “leads me to believe we're going to get more cooperation.” Tauzin said Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R- Mich.) “is similarly prepared” to move FCC reform language.
Although Tauzin has been scrutinizing cable industry, he said he wasn’t inclined to regulate it. “The only thing that troubles me is whether there’s going to be adequate choice,” he said. “If rates keep rising, of course we've got problems.” He said he was pushing entire multichannel industry to provide a la carte programming, particularly of additional sports programming, so consumers could buy multiple bundles without having to purchase duplicative basic programming. “I'm trying to get people to think about it before it becomes a problem and we have to legislate,” Tauzin said. “I'd prefer that the industry work it out.” He said same was true for cable open access -- “a question that will sit out there and become a bigger and bigger question if we don’t complete deregulation and help incentivize a competitive marketplace. It goes away when people have a number of choices.”
Committee’s DTV transition review will include “whole range of policy questions,” Tauzin said, including must-carry, standards, manufacturing. He said he had “very much an open mind on it. I just know we're off track. The first thing to do is to find out why. I don’t think anyone knows that yet.”