April 24, 2001

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 24, 2001) - The Internet Freedom & Broadband Deployment Act of 2001 (H.R. 1542), a bill amending the Telecommunications Act of 1996 introduced yesterday, would gut core provisions of the landmark legislation, and would be a setback for local telephone competition, the Small Business Survival Committee said today.  

"This bill would cripple local telephone competition," said Karen Kerrigan, chairman of SBSC.  The bill would allow the local telephone companies to build high-speed networks and originate long distance data traffic in their home territories without first opening the local market to competition.  "Any incentive the phone companies ever had to cooperate with efforts to bring about local phone competition would simply be gone," she added.  

According to SBSC, local phone competition is important to small business owners because competition brings about new service offerings at competitive prices. Such innovation in the telecommunications industry enhances the productivity of those businesses.

One such example cited by the group is Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service.  "The local phone companies had DSL technology for years and did nothing to promote it until competition came along and forced their hand," Kerrigan said.  

When it was passed in 1996 the Telecommunications Act set the basic framework for industry competition, according to Kerrigan.  "Tinkering with the Act now could halt competition just as it is beginning to take hold," she said.  "Telecommunications law shouldn't resemble the tax code - this constant tinkering and changing is bad for business.  The rules are set and we shouldn't change them."

Kerrigan also announced that SBSC has launched a letter-writing campaign from small businesses to members of Congress, asking elected officials to oppose the Internet Freedom & Broadband Deployment Act of 2001, also known as the Tauzin bill named after its chief sponsor, Congressman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana.  SBSC has more than 70,000 members nationwide.