Competitive carriers celebrate progress

Three years after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law, the Competitive Telecommunications Association, newly merged with America's Carriers Telecommunication Association, threw a party to celebrate the occasion. FCC Chairman William E. Kennard sliced a cake as a brass band from Morehouse College shook up the house and CompTel '99 attendees blew horns and tossed streamers under a thunderstorm of blue and white balloons.

The general mood was one of celebration of the triumph of competition. "We're starting to see the benefits it has brought us, and we can see the shape of the new competitive world," Kennard said in his keynote address.

The telecom industry is in a growth spurt due to the passage of the act, he said. "The communications segment of our economy has grown by over $140 billion, the revenues of new local service providers more than doubled in 1997 and they almost doubled again in 1998," Kennard said.

However, he cautioned that it is time to move beyond the litigation, which has primarily supported the telecom act, and ensure the doors of competition are open. To do that, the FCC must hammer out "the three pathways to competition"-resale, facilities-based competition and unbundled network elements.

The FCC plans to resolve the latter issue by this summer, but in the meantime, Kennard said, "the [regional Bell operating companies] and GTE have agreed to fulfill their current obligations as set forth in the existing interconnection agreements, to provide unbundled network elements."

This year, the FCC will tackle broadband access, access charge restructuring, universal service reform and reciprocal compensation. In addition, Kennard said, the FCC is focusing on enforcing the telecom act, first by establishing an enforcement bureau. He cited the success of the Rocket Docket process, which speeds up complaints, and noted that he plans to "level the playing field to provide service in rural areas, too."

His comments were met with cheers and applause from the audience, consisting mostly of competitive local exchange carriers and interexchange carriers.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was also on hand to celebrate the act's third anniversary. Opportunity is ripe for competitive carriers with a plan, he said. "We can go further in the next 40 years than we have in the last 120," he said.

Gingrich said progress hinges on a service provider's ability to define a plan. He outlined the four steps required for a successful plan: Determine the vision, implement a strategy, establish projects-the process of adhering to the strategy-and define tactics. Visionaries can accomplish their goals by following four simple steps: listen, learn, help and lead, he said, adding that the GOP's Contract with America was designed using the same process.

Not painting a rose-colored picture, Gingrich acknowledged the challenges ahead. The incumbent/competitive carrier battle will be a permanent "process of struggle," he said. On the international side, he added, "we need to recognize that the world market is a country-by-country process. We're not as good at that as a country. We need a national pro-competitive policy and an international pro-competitive policy, and to communicate the opportunities of the next few years."