NCTA President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow Applauds House Committee
For Adding Voice Competition Section to Telecommunications Legislation

“Today’s markup represents significant progress towards a framework for true competition in voice services.  We will continue to work closely with Chairman Barton, Chairman Upton, Ranking Members Dingell and Markey, and all members of the Energy and Commerce Committee as this legislation moves to full committee action in a few weeks.

Although the initial drafts of this legislation last year were narrowly focused on competition in the video marketplace, the legislation now addresses the broader telecommunications landscape and the need to promote facilities-based wireline voice competition.

We are very pleased with the new interconnection language that gives facilities-based Internet voice providers the same rights that other voice competitors were granted in the 1996 Telecommunications Act.  This is a significant step forward for voice competition in the U.S. and will enable cable and other Internet phone providers to finally break the Bell companies’ tight grip on this marketplace.  We would like to acknowledge the leadership of Representative Chip Pickering for introducing this important amendment.

We remain concerned about the network neutrality provisions and continue to believe that government should not risk freezing investment and innovation in new broadband services by unnecessarily intruding into a thriving marketplace.  We remain committed to working with the Committee on strong anti-discrimination language that ensures the benefits of new services are delivered to all consumers."

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NCTA is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable industry, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation's cable television households and more than 200 cable program networks.  The cable industry is the nation’s largest broadband provider of high-speed Internet access after investing $100 billion over ten years to build a two-way interactive network with fiber optic technology.  Cable companies also provide state-of-the-art digital telephone service to millions of American consumers.

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