TELECOM REFORM, REPUBLICAN-STYLE Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD) has proposed a telecommunications reform plan that would drop all cable TV rate regulations; allow local phone and cable competition and cross-ownership in one year; ease foreign ownership restrictions; and allow local phone companies to compete in long distance in three years. A formal counter proposal is expected from the Democrats February 14, and it's expected that there will be objections to most of the provisions outlined in Pressler's bill. (Investor's Business Daily 2/2/95 A4) (((cut here))) For those that don't know I have my Master's in Interactive Telecommunications, and have long looked at cable and teleco from several angles including freemarket and cypherpunk viewpoints. While there is a lack of detail here, I strongly endorse anything that lets cable and phone companies compete. They have largely the same customer base (although telco's have a larger % of the base), but the cable companies are in a better opportunity to over PCS, higher-bandwidth networking, and video on demand. What we have to watch out for is FCC regulation. It is well excepted that the FCC can censor commercial speech (cig. ads), and individual speech (the 7 dirty words), in the "public" interest. Cable and Teleco are FCC regulated. If they provide the network of the future, as opposed to UUnet-Microsoft (for example), we might have to be careful.. The "model" of interactivity most "thinking" people endorse is one that is two way. The FCC does really monitor what you say on the phone (although who knows about the NSA ;)... If you can in the brave new Telco/Cable future send as well as receive.. and send in broadcast-like mode... are you subject to content approval from the FCC? We should strongly endorse this move by. Sen. Pressler as it will get us broadband to many homes in 5 to 7 years, but we have to remain concerned about our freedom to speak not matter if that is one on one, or to a large group! /hawk -- Harry S. Hawk habs@panix.com Product Marketing Manager PowerMail, Inc. Producers of MailWeir(tm) & PowerServ(tm)