The Telecommunications Industry Association has written a letter to the Federal Communication Commission, arguing against continued investment reductions in U.S. telecommunications networks.
The TIA recently hand delivered to the four members of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) a letter to Chairman Michael Powell with a new paper enclosed entitled "Investment, Capital Spending and Service Quality in U.S. Telecommunications Networks: A Symbiotic Relationship."
In his letter, TIA President Matthew Flanigan suggests to Powell that "special priority should be given to maintaining the availability, reliability and integrity of the telecommunications utility."
Flanigan further explains that the information in the enclosed paper on the relationship between investment, capital expenditures in infrastructure equipment, and service quality means that the trend of continuing capital expenditure reductions "should cause alarm bells to go off among regulators at every level," including in the states, where service quality issues rightfully are a high priority. The TIA paper argues that there is a direct relationship between levels of network investment and service quality.
The TIA also filed the paper in the FCC's Triennial Review of the Unbundling Rules proceeding. The TIA and the High Tech Broadband Coalition have asked the FCC to determine that the unbundling rules under Section 251 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 do not apply to new, last-mile broadband facilities. These include optical fiber and digital subscriber line (DSL) and successor electronics deployed on the customer side of the central office.
The TIA, based in Arlington, Va., is the leading trade association serving the communications and information technology industry. For more information visit
www.tiaonline.org.
