Political Quotes

“we are dealing with a structure today that is a dinosaur and H.R. 1872 remedies that. Thirty-five years is a long time since the original act and in the communications industry it is even a longer time. And since the act was passed originally, technology, the worldwide industry structure have changed dramatically. A monopoly structure might have been required at the time to develop a global network, but today it has become a problem, a dinosaur keeping rates far above the costs and limiting the service and facility innovation that we would otherwise get. This legislation solves that problem. It opens up the international satellite markets to facilities-based competition, and it properly restricts the activities of the international satellite organizations until this goal is well on its way. It permits providers other than COMSAT to directly access INTELSAT and Inmarsat so that rates for end users can go down more immediately. It allows customers to take advantage of these lower rates by permitting them to renegotiate contracts agreed upon when only a monopoly existed before. As for COMSAT and the international organizations, it allows them to move ahead in this new competitive environment so long as they operate in the best interest of a competitive marketplace.”