NEW OKLA. LAW DEREGULATES BROADBAND DESPITE CLECS’ OPPOSITION
Efforts by competitors to stop SBC-backed state legislation to require regulatory parity between incumbent telcos and their competitors for DSL and other broadband services proved unsuccessful in first of 4 SBC states to consider such bills this year. Okla. Gov. Frank Keating (R) signed bill (HB-2796) that prohibits Okla. Corp. Commission from regulating high-speed Internet access services such as DSL and all other broadband services, “regardless of the technology or medium used” for providing service. State broadband service regulation of SBC/Southwestern Bell and all other providers in state must cease as of July 1. New law requires carriers to obey any network unbundling requirements imposed by FCC, but otherwise contains no prerequisites or tradeoffs for broadband deregulation. Bill defines broadband as any digital service operating at speeds over 150 kbps.
Bill had passed Okla. House as regulatory parity measure requiring Corporation Commission to impose equal regulation on all types of broadband providers. Senate deleted regulatory parity language and turned bill into flat deregulation measure. House promptly concurred with Senate’s change and passed bill. Senate deleted House language explicitly denying Okla. commission jurisdiction over DSL line sharing, but supporters believe law’s absolute prohibition on any state regulation of broadband and Internet access services covers DSL line sharing as well.
SBC praised Okla. lawmakers for recognizing inherent unfairness of burdening incumbent telcos with costly DSL/broadband service requirements when entrenched broadband competitors such as cable are essentially unregulated. CLEC trade group ASCENT, which has been fighting SBC over broadband regulatory-parity legislation, termed new Okla. law “a harsh blow to a competitive industry already under terrific duress.” Instead of giving state regulators tools for promoting broadband while protecting consumers, ASCENT said Okla. legislature “assures SBC can extend its monopoly to include broadband as well as local service.”
Latest broadband parity legislation has appeared in SBC state of Cal., where measure (AB-2933) would direct Cal. PUC to “review, investigate, and study California’s high speed internet access and broadband services market for purposes of determining the necessary courses of action to achieve regulatory parity among all providers within the high speed Internet access and broadband services market.” Study, which would address any digital service faster than 200 kbps regardless of technology or medium used, would be submitted to legislature by Dec. 1, 2003. Assembly Utilities & Commerce Committee plans April 22 hearing on measure.
ASCENT urged panel to delete regulatory parity language from bill. ASCENT agreed PUC broadband market study had merit, but said regulatory parity objective prescribed in bill “places the proverbial cart before the horse in determining that a fundamental change in regulation must be made to promote broadband deployment” even before study was begun. ASCENT said bill appeared to accept as fact an as- yet-unsupported contention that regulatory parity was imperative for rapid broadband deployment.
Meanwhile, broadband regulatory parity bills in Conn. and Kan. remain in committee in chamber of origin with no immediate action scheduled. Conn. bill (HB-5409), pending before House Energy & Technology Committee, would bar Conn. Dept. of Public Utility Control from imposing any regulation on any broadband or high-speed Internet access provider unless identical regulation were imposed on all providers, regardless of technology or transmission medium used. Bill would affect digital services operating at speeds above 200 kbps.
Kan. bill (SB-606), in Senate Commerce Committee, would deregulate rates and terms of incumbents’ broadband and Internet access services when competing provider begins offering service in particular market, or when incumbent enters market where another provider already exists. Broadband is defined as digital services operating faster than 200 kbps. Deregulation upon competitive entry provision would also apply for all other retail telecom services including residential basic exchange. Bill also would prohibit state regulators from imposing any state network unbundling requirements for any services other than basic exchange.
Unlike the other bills in SBC states, Kan. bill contains explicit broadband deployment requirement. Measure would require that broadband providers extend service to any community where 500 subscribers request it. Also, Kan. regulators would retain jurisdiction over service quality, discrimination and anticompetitive conduct.