Public Knowledge released a white paper (http://bit.ly/12jFoXT) expanding...
Public Knowledge released a white paper (http://bit.ly/12jFoXT) expanding on its “five fundamentals” for policymakers to consider as the telephone industry transitions from copper to fiber and IP-based systems. “We are starting to have things already go wrong as part of…
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this transition,” said PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld on a conference call with reporters. Rural call completion is the “most obvious” example, he said, along with Fire Island residents being “forcibly transitioned” from one technology to another. Meanwhile, infrastructure is “rotting in the ground” and outages are becoming “increasingly routine,” said Feld, who co-authored the paper. State legislatures frequently take bills written by the American Legislative Exchange Council, pushed by lobbyists from the biggest telecom firms, and “deregulate everything even before the conversation begins,” Feld said. PK’s “hope” in releasing the white paper is that state and federal lawmakers will “take the time” to understand the real implications, Feld said: “This has been a debate about regulation rather than a debate about values.” Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin, the other co-author, said it gives a “deeper and more historical case” for the five principles: service to all Americans; competition and interconnection; consumer protection; network reliability; and public safety. “The U.S. can’t be the first industrialized nation to step back from the goal of 100 percent penetration of basic voice service,” she said.