Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) hopes to hold a hearing on mergers before marking up a telecom bill, he said Thurs. at a hearing focusing on telecom industry convergence. “The proposed AT&T-Bell South merger would certainly alter the communications landscape in this country, and is likely to trigger additional transactions,” said Ranking Member Inouye (D-Hawaii), who wants the committee to examine the merger “specifically.”

The first annual TelecomNext convention got generally good reviews from exhibitors and attendees -- but most of those we talked to indicated the show, organized by USTelecom, is probably just first up in a convention battle with the Telecom Industry Assn. (TIA). The next stage of the battle is TIA’s Globalcomm, which begins June 5 in Chicago. TIA and USTelecom jointly organized Supercomm before the 2 split and decided to offer separate conventions beginning this spring.

The long-awaited House telecom bill got a warm reception from Bell companies, but net neutrality proponents Tues. called it a step backward for the Internet (see separate story in this issue). The bill puts net neutrality regulation in the FCC’s hands, but it specifically orders no rulemaking -- a provision critics say would limit the FCC’s enforcement power. Cable gave the bill conditional approval, praising progress from earlier drafts. The bill doesn’t include a buildout provision -- considered a key stumbling block in building bipartisan support on the committee.

LAS VEGAS -- Telcos are only beginning to spend money on IPTV and next-generation networks, but they're starting to decide how, vendors said on the show floor at the TelecomNext convention here. “The big money will be spent over the next few years,” Anne Coulombe, SeaChange dir.-product mktg., said: “This is still nascent, but the big decisions are being made now.”

LAS VEGAS -- Moving toward 100 Mbps data rates to users and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystems) are the next big challenges and the next big opportunities for telcos, Bell officials said at the USTelecom convention here. But others said consumers aren’t likely to want to pay more for the services, forcing telcos to seek new revenue sources.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC’s decision to give Verizon regulatory relief for broadband services (CD March 20 p1) is a prime example of the agency’s goal to make sure regulatory policy doesn’t impede deployment, FCC Chmn. Martin said Tues. at USTelecom’s TelecomNext show here. Such decisions encourage investment by making sure govt. doesn’t improperly intrude on the market, he said.

LAS VEGAS -- The explosion of new telecom technologies has contributed to the fact that “the media landscape has changed more in the last few years” than in any previous period, said Disney CEO Robert Iger, keynoting the USTelecom convention. His speech was only one of many indications that telecom-TV convergence was a central theme here.

LAS VEGAS -- The main question in the escalating network neutrality debate is who pays for the rapidly growing number of bits passing through networks, rather than about limits on certain kinds of content, speakers said here at the USTelecom conference Mon. Content providers want carriers to charge subscribers for higher capacity use. Carriers want options, including ad models and even billing content providers.

Cable wants to preserve the status quo, which means high prices for consumers, USTelecom Pres. Walter McCormick said in a letter sent last week to House and Senate Commerce Committee leaders. He was answering NCTA Pres. Kyle McSlarrow’s charges that telecom providers seek legislative bars to competitive entry into the video business. The letter quoted McSlarrow’s comments to lawmakers that “the Bell monopolies seek to short-circuit this process by having you focus only on one side of the equation -- video.” McSlarrow is correct, the letter said -- but because “vibrant competition in the voice communications already exists.” Now it’s time to bring competition to video, the letter said.

Despite NARUC claims to the contrary, the FCC can extend the separations freeze without seeking comment or referring the matter to the Federal State Joint Board on Universal Service, USTelecom told the FCC. “NARUC does not oppose an extension of the freeze, but questions the legality of the Commission adopting an interim freeze without first conducting a notice-and-comment rulemaking coupled with a referral to the Joint Board,” USTelecom said: “NARUC is wrong on the law.”