All broadband providers should be subject to symmetrical regulati...

All broadband providers should be subject to symmetrical regulation but protections need to be implemented to help ISPs during the transition, study released Mon. by Economic Policy Institute concluded. Putting Broadband on High Speed: New Public Policies to Encourage Rapid Deployment was written by TeleNomic Research Pres. Stephen Pociask. He argued that cable, DSL and wireless broadband providers had “converged into an information sector” but the Bells were subject to unbundling and line-sharing obligations not imposed on other sectors. Despite Pociask’s call for Bell deregulation, he also said “some regulatory oversight, however, is needed in order to provide a minimum standard for open networks for Internet service providers (ISPs).” He also said mergers among major telecom providers “should be discouraged until regulatory symmetry has resulted in increased investment and intermodal competition.” Pociask said “there is strong empirical evidence that setting low [unbundled network element (UNE)] prices is affecting ILEC’s recovery of network investment,” thus discouraging Bell broadband build-outs when unbundling rules were applied to DSL facilities. Current rulemaking by FCC is examining possibility of reclassifying DSL as an information service and removing common carrier unbundling obligations from DSL facilities (CD July 3 p4). “Broadband providers should not be required to unbundle their broadband investments unless they voluntarily choose to do so,” he wrote. He also said sunset date should be applied to ILECs unbundling loops for DSL, “which gives time for these competitors to build or move to alternative networks.” As for ISPs, he said major cable, DSL and wireless providers “should have some minimal requirement of wholesaling broadband services to ISPs and nonfacility-based competitors” on nondiscriminatory basis: “This would prevent a price squeeze on ISPs, develop intermodal competition for ISP traffic and reduce risks from market concentration” -- www.epinet.org.