Gore/GII

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Sender: "LOIS G. PHILLIPS" <phillips.lois () bsc bls com>


VICE PRESIDENT TO CONVENE TELECOMMUNICATIONS
SUMMIT IN JANUARY


Vice President Al Gore will convene a federal/state
telecommunications summit Jan. 9 in Washington, Thomas Sugrue of
the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA)
announced today.


Sugrue, NTIA Deputy Administrator, was the lead-off speaker at
today's closing session of the Federal Communications Bar
Association/Practicing Law Institute conference.


The goal of the vice presidential summit will be reaching consensus
on major telecommunications issues, Sugrue said.  Attending will be
Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC); Anne Bingaman, head of the antitrust division of the
Department of Justice (DOJ); NTIA Administrator Larry Irving, as
well as major legislators and industry officials.


Sugrue said the administration thinks prospects for telecom
legislation in 1995 are good and said he doesn't feel the
leadership change in Congress will be detrimental to the
legislative effort....


The conference will focus on changes needed in the regulatory
framework to promote development of the GII. In a departure from
normal practice, business leaders have been asked to join the G-7
officials.


Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown will lead the U.S. delegation and
Gore will give the opening address, the NTIA deputy said.


"We hope that this conference will (produce) momentum toward
international reform and an impetus to get work done in other
forums," Sugrue said.


Sugrue also said the administration hopes to have a new General
Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) covering basic
telecommunications service by April 1996.


This could conceivably lead to U.S.companies providing, or
teaming with local providers to offer, local phone service in
other countries, he said....


FCC Chief Engineer Thomas Stanley said the auction differential
won't make much difference in a few years.


Debate followed on the necessity of setting standards for personal
communication services (PCS).


"There will no doubt be a shakedown period because the FCC isn't
saying PCS is this service, in this geography, and so forth...but
the worst thing (they could do) would be to pound down PCS with a
limited concept," Stanley said.


Brian Fontes of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry
Association (CTIA) agreed.


"Standards have a tendency to freeze-frame technology," he said.
"Industry should formulate the technology, and government should
get out of the way."...


And in a later panel, Charles Rush of NTIA said that "people want
to plug in their PC wherever they are and that begs the issue of
standards."


Kennedy said the whole world in watching how the PCS market is
defined and developed in this country.


Controversy also arose over the question of equal access
requirements for wireless carriers.


Fontes of CTIA and C. J. Waylan of GTE said equal access is not
required or needed and is inconsistent with a competitive
marketplace.  Even the Bell companies should not be subject to this
requirement, they said.


But Gerard Salemme of AT&T/McCaw said equal access should be
required of all wireless carriers.  AT&T voluntarily agreed to
provide equal access as part of the DOJ Consent Decree that
authorized AT&T's acquisition of McCaw Cellular, Salemme said.


For more information, contact Washington Telecom Newswire at (703)
264-9730


Chris Valmassei
Washington Telecom Newswire     |   Internet:   wtn () wtn com






        This document forwarded via cpsr.org and is archived there - examine
        via ftp, gopher, www, listserv file retrieval, etc.