Rural House Leader Supports Municipal Telecom Networks
House Rural Caucus Chmn. Peterson (R-Pa.) expressed frustration about the lack of advanced services in rural areas and said he would support the rights of municipalities to build their own broadband networks. During Wed.’s Rural Caucus Telecom Task Force forum on VoIP, Peterson pushed the issue of municipal deployment of telecom services. “I don’t have a lot of hope” about broadband deployment in rural areas, he said.
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Peterson said as a state senator in Pa., he helped enact legislation to allow more telecom competition and loosen some PUC regulations while in return incumbent providers were supposed to increase deployment. “They didn’t do it,” Peterson said, and added he’s supportive of municipalities, particularly small rural ones, developing their own network. Richard Cimerman, NCTA senior dir.- state telecom policy, said NCTA supports outright prohibition of municipal networks. But he added that there were worries that cable operators would be in the position of competing against the same entity that regulates it.
Cimerman also said NCTA supports a number-based contribution mechanism for the Universal Service Fund because it would easily capture VoIP services. He said VoIP providers should be granted rights to interconnect with the public switched telephone network. Cimerman also said NCTA sees a role for state regulators, particularly when overseeing interconnection issues.
Stephen Seitz of the National Emergency Number Assn. said any telecom act rewrite should include the principle of “universal 911” and significant funding for 911 services. Jeffrey Young, Alcatel chief technology officer, said Congress should codify preemption of state authority over VoIP services.