Christopher Shays: “I believe in real competition and meaningful choice, and this bill offers that. Today the House will be considering…”

“I believe in real competition and meaningful choice, and this bill offers that. Today the House will be considering important legislation designed to bring satellite communications technology into the modern age. I would like to commend the Chairman of the Commerce Committee, Mr. Bliley, and his original cosponsor, Mr. Markey, for introducing H.R. 1872, the bill to privatize the intergovernmental satellite organizations. It has been endorsed by every private satellite services company and the major users of satellite services. Two intergovernmental organizations dominate international satellite communications. They are called INTELSAT and Inmarsat. They are owned by a cartel like structure of all the world's state telephone companies. The same companies that control access to national markets, and thus keep out American companies that want to compete with these organizations. H.R. 1872 privatizes the intergovernmental satellite organizations, and even more, does so in a pro-competitive manner. Now, they will never privatize pro-competitively on their own--they like either the status quo or a privatized monopoly. That is why the bill uses access to the U.S. market for advanced services as a lever to make sure they are privatized pro-competitively.”