George P. Radanovich: “this bill will provide a major boost to the U.S. economy, particularly to the telecommunications and high-tech sectors.…”

“this bill will provide a major boost to the U.S. economy, particularly to the telecommunications and high-tech sectors. This is a bill that promises to create more than a million new jobs, and hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity if it does become law, and our Nation needs this legislation. As a Member from rural America, I have a particular interest in this bill because Tauzin-Dingell will ensure that the high-speed access reaches underserved areas by requiring local phone companies to provide access throughout the country. This will guarantee that small towns and rural areas, all but ignored today, have access to true information-age opportunities. And as a business owner, I know that competition empowers consumers by forcing companies to provide better products and better services at cheaper rates. By removing the unfair regulatory barriers that discourage phone companies from investing in broadband, this bill will ensure real competition in the marketplace. At present, we have no competition in the high-speed data market. What is worse, we have no coherent national policy to encourage the deployment of high-speed Internet services. Instead, we have a regulatory regime that applies a massive set of bureaucratic rules designed for old telephone voice service to the brave new world of the Internet.”