Chip Pickering: “I thank the chairman. Having received an MBA from a great institution in the State of Texas, Baylor, I was taught that…”

“I thank the chairman. Having received an MBA from a great institution in the State of Texas, Baylor, I was taught that competition drives deployment, innovation, investment. Why would the telephone companies have to go to both sides of the town? Because the cable companies are going with something called voiceover Internet, voice over cable systems, voice providers and other companies, into both sides of the town. And unless the telephone companies want to lose both sides of the town, they are going to have to go with video. So more video choice, more voice choice, more investment, more innovation, greater competition. And that is why we will see benefits on all parts, in all parts of our country, and all sides of our cities and communities. That is why this is a good bill. It makes a national framework, as it should do, as we go into an IP, Internet-based world. It is interstate. It is international. It should be done at the FCC, not in a patchwork of entities all across the country, slowing deployment and investment. I want to commend the great chairman from the Great State of Texas and the subcommittee chairman from Michigan, and I also want to thank our colleagues on the other side.”