****Begin File******************Begin File*******************Begin File**** *************************************************************************** ISSN 1069-7799 ALAWON ALA Washington Office Newsline An electronic publication of the American Library Association Washington Office Volume 3, Number 35 July 18, 1994 In this issue: (193 lines) HOUSE PASSES TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILLS *************************************************************************** HOUSE PASSES TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILLS While the ALA Annual Conference in Miami was underway, the House broke a longstanding logjam on telecommunications regulatory measures and passed two bills on June 28. An agreement between two key House committee chairmen þ Jack Brooks (D-TX) of the Judiciary Committee and John Dingell of the Energy and Commerce Committee þ allowed passage under suspension of the rules (expedited procedures usually reserved for minor and noncontroversial measures). H.R. 3626, the Antitrust and Communications Reform Act of 1994 passed by a vote of 423-5. H.R. 3636, the National Communications Competition and Information Infrastructure Act of 1994, passed by a vote of 423-4. The bills have now been combined into one measure, H.R. 3626. The combined bill would establish mechanisms for the regional Bell operating companies to enter lines of business previously prohibited by the courts þ long distance, alarm monitoring services, manufacture of telecommunications equipment, and electronic publishing (the courts had already agreed to the latter). Entry into these competitive markets by the Bells would be subject to certain antitrust and regulatory constraints. For instance, a Bell operating company may engage in a wide range of electronic publishing activities, but if the activity would be disseminated through BOC telecommunications facilities, a separated affiliate or a joint venture would be required. The bill would also allow local telephone and cable television companies to enter each other's markets. It requires local phone companies to offer competitors access to parts of their networks, and permits phone companies, through separate affiliates, to provide video programming in their service areas. It would also establish a process to update and expand the concept of universal service. The effect of these major changes, if enacted, is hard to predict. The Federal Communications Commission would have so many new tasks as to raise legitimate concern about its ability to keep track of the rapidly changing environment and to enforce effectively the intended protections of the public interest. However, substantial (although not all) concepts and explanatory language recommended by ALA to both the Administration and to Congress regarding preferential rates for libraries and educational institutions were included in H.R. 3636 (and now in the combined H.R. 3626). Preferential rates for libraries are covered in three separate places in H.R. 3636. 1. The bill would require the FCC to convene a Federal-State Joint Board to recommend actions to federal and state regulators for the preservation of universal service. When a common carrier establishes advanced telecommunications services, the required plan for universal service must include provisions for such services (other than a video platform) at preferential rates that recover only the added costs of providing such service for public service institutions, both as producers and users of services. Such institutions could use preferential rate services only for providing noncommercial information services or telecommunications services to the general public. The definition of public service institutions includes federal, state, or local government agencies; nonprofit educational institutions, health care institutions, public libraries, public museums, or public broadcasting stations; and nonprofit organizations under certain conditions. Educational institutions, according to H. Rept. 103-560 on H.R. 3636, means elementary, secondary, and nonprofit higher educational institutions (the latter as defined in section 1201 of the Higher Education Act). "Library" means public, college, university and research libraries, as defined by the Library Services and Construction Act. 2. The bill includes a separate section on telecommunications services for educational institutions, health care institutions, and libraries, which calls for the FCC to promote the provision of advanced telecommunications services to educational institutions, health care institutions, and public libraries. The section would require a nationwide survey of the availability of such services to these institutions. The survey, to be prepared by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the Commerce Department, is to be completed and publicly released within a year of enactment and updated annually. Within a year of enactment, the FCC is to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking for the purpose of adopting regulations that "enhance, to the extent technically feasible and economically reasonable, the availability of advanced telecommunications services to all educational institutions and classrooms, health care institutions, and public libraries by the year 2000;" ensure that appropriate functional requirements or performance standards; define carrier obligations; and "provide for either the establishment of preferential rates for telecommunications services, including advanced services, that are provided to educational institutions, health care institutions, and public libraries, or the use of alternative mechanisms to enhance the availability of advanced services to these institutions." Educational institutions are defined as solely elementary and secondary educational institutions, although the FCC is to assess the feasibility of including postsecondary educational institutions in any regulations. The term "public libraries" is not defined in this section. Both of these sections address the need of libraries and educational institutions for affordable telecommunications services, but neither section meets the full need. The first is limited to provision of noncommercial services to the general public and would seem to exclude services needed internally by libraries or among libraries to support public services. The second excludes, for the most part, higher education institutions, and does not clarify the eligibility for preferential rates of the full range of mechanisms through which library service is delivered to the public. 3. The first section on preferential rates excludes services offered through a video platform. However, a third section would require the FCC to prescribe regulations to provide access for the public at preferential rates on cable systems and video platforms. H. Rept. 103-560 indicates that in determining eligibility for such preferential rates, "the Commission may be guided, where appropriate, by the entities deemed eligible for preferential rates for advanced telecommunications services" listed in the first section (including nonprofit educational institutions and public libraries, broadly defined). On universal service in an age of digital technology, H. Rept. 103-560 notes: ...in an economy that is, and in the future will be, more and more dependent on information, to be connected to digitized information, to be able to access and to use such information, will mean to be plugged into the economy. To be denied access will mean to be denied opportunity. If access to digitized information proves too costly for most Americans to obtain via the public network and/or beyond the means of public support, such information should be accessible through the schools and libraries in our communities. Other noteworthy provisions include open platform service, defined as switched digital telecommunications service with enough network capability to access multimedia information services, and widely available to all subscribers. The FCC is to initiate an inquiry and prescribe regulations based on the result, to require tariffs for open platform service when "economically and technically feasible." Common carrier obligations would be imposed on video platform service, and under certain conditions, on cable networks. The bill includes an anti- redlining provision relating to video platform service. An FCC inquiry and later regulations would be required to ensure that interactive communications devices, or "set-top boxes," are open and competitively available. The FCC, together with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is to study policies to enhance civic participation through the NII. H. Rept. 103-560 indicates: "The inquiry shall address the question of whether common carriers should be required to provide citizens with a flat rate for service for granting access to the Internet. The Committee adopted this provision to explore how those entities over which the Commission has jurisdiction interact with the Internet, and how those entities could meet the goals of bringing advanced telecommunications services to all Americans." The FCC is also to study how to encourage citizen participation in regulatory issues. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is an irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office, 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-5675. Internet: alawash@alawash.org; Phone: 202-547-4440; Fax: 202-547-7363. Editor: Lee G. Enyart (lge@alawash.org). ALAWON is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala-wo [your name]" to listserv@uicvm (Bitnet) or listserv@uicvm.uic.edu (Internet). Back issues and other documents are available from the list server. To find out what's available, send the message "send ala-wo filelist" to the listserv. The ALA-WO filelist contains the list of files with the exact filename and filetype. 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