POWELL, TAUZIN, BURNS WARN STATES ON FEDERAL TELECOM ROLE

Powell said “it’s time to reexamine our rules, revalidate those that still have merit and expunge those that don’t.” He said regulators must be more responsive and sensitive to trends and changes in telecom. FCC has obligation to be efficient, responsive and quick, he said: “We need to decide matters on ‘Internet time,’ but doing this will require talent.” He said state and federal regulators must become more savvy about technology and technology-driven economic change. “We also need more focus on competitive behavior, not traditional regulation, and above all must be ready for the enforcement actions that are part and parcel of policy.” Powell said neither federal nor state jurisdictions could regulate alone. “Nothing that we hope for can be achieved without a federal-state partnership,” he said.

In response to question, Powell said he expected FCC would see many Sec. 271 petitions this year: “To handle them, we must work faster and more efficiently, but we'll need you [states] to get them right before they get to us.” On another question, he said policymakers couldn’t afford to make low retail rates into a sacred cow. “You can’t take retail rates off the table when making policy, because they send crucial economic pricing signals, especially in the residential marketplace,” he said. He also said universal service wasn’t defined by a particular size of support fund, but by whether “service is ubiquitous and affordable.”

Burns told state regulators Telecom Act hadn’t been perfect, but had been good for investment in new services and technologies. “The Act let loose fortunes that were waiting to be invested, and that produced winners and losers. It hasn’t done everything we wanted, but basically it’s been very good for new services and technologies.” He said state regulators “need to let us [in Congress] know when to turn loose investment and when business isn’t being a good corporate citizen.” He said there always would be competing interests, but policymakers must always keep in mind overriding question: “Is this good for the country?”

Tauzin said govt.’s role in utility industries was “helping the markets to work, not hiding costs from the consumer.” Hiding real costs may look good politically, he said, “but the consumer eventually pays anyway and meantime you've been sending wrong economic signals that distort the market.” Tauzin said lawmakers and regulators “should make market policy only as a last resort to ensure everyone gets served. But first we should remove barriers and encourage supply and investment.” He said policy issue of assuring universal access and adequate supply at affordable prices was common both to telecom and energy policymaking. “With connectivity and supply assured, we can let the markets work so that no one suffers from Internet deprivation or energy shortages.” Tauzin said his personal goal was “having every child in Louisiana connected to the Internet before I leave office. When you're not connected, you're left behind.” -- Herb Kirchhoff

NARUC Notebook…

NARUC board adopted 3 policy resolutions from Consumer Affairs Committee, along with 4 passed Tues. by Telecom Committee. First Consumer Affairs resolution given final adoption Wed. addresses July 31 detariffing of interstate interexchange services, leaving them to be controlled by state laws rather than federal tariffs. Resolution urged all states to adopt rules for interstate interexchange services to ensure that customers received basic information they needed to make informed choices on their service provider and weren’t forced to waive their consumer rights as condition of service. Another Consumer Affairs resolution urged FCC to open rulemaking to deal with cyberdialer attacks and other forms of electronic deception intended to trick people into placing expensive international calls. Resolution cites cyberdialers distributed surreptitiously via e-mail attachments or downloaded from Internet Web sites that automatically disconnected regular Internet connection and established connection using international long distance number at rates exceeding $10 per min. It urged FCC to adopt rules that prohibit transfer of dialing programs for international calling via e-mail or Internet without prior written consent, that carriers not bill for entities that engaged in cybertrickery and that it forgive fraudulent charges and educate customers about new computer-based fraud. Final Consumer Affairs resolution urged Congress to implement consumer protection principles in any new truth-in-billing legislation considered in current session. Resolution refers Congress to set of truth-in-billing principles NARUC adopted in July at its summer meeting in L.A. on empowering and protecting consumers through billing practices that would minimize customer confusion. Senate last year considered truth- in-billing legislation, but measure didn’t pass.