Political Quotes

“of critical importance here is an understanding shared by the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Boucher] and me that the economic burdens of complying with the competitive checklist fall on the party requesting the interconnection. However, to the extent the rural telephone company economically benefits from the interconnection, the States should offset the costs imposed by the party requesting interconnection. Furthermore, we want to make clear that while H.R. 1555 provides that the user of the interconnection pay the cost of interconnection, the user in this context is the corporate entity requesting interconnection with a local exchange company. It would be a perversion of the intent if the cost of complying with the competitive checklist would require the incumbent rural telephone company to increase its basic local telephone rates to fund the competitor's service offering.”