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Democracy & Technology Blog Alabama tcom law needs update

In Alabama, HB 478 and SB 373 would protect competitive telecommunications, voice over Internet, cellphone and broadband services from utility regulation.
Competition drives innovation which benefits consumers, as we have seen so often in telecommunications beginning in the 1980’s and 90’s–when small steps towards free and open competition enabled new services and features.
For example, long distance service used to be fairly expensive. Long distance prices have come down dramatically. They have come down to the point that for many consumers–consumers whose phone service is not subject to regulation by the state Public Service Commission–long distance is a bundled service with unlimited use.
Cellphone service–again not subject to PSC regulation–used to cost 47 cents per minute. Now, with many providers and ample competition, the cost to consumers has dropped to around 6 cents a minute, while new features, innovations, and uses for cell phones have proliferated.
For example, 20 years ago there were no text messages. In 2005 , when the Alabama legislature last amended the state’s communication laws, wireless companies nationwide carried 9.8 billion text messages a month. In 2008 that number was 75 billion a month. Why? Consumers demanded it, and technology provided it in a market free to innovate.
We all know that technology and consumer needs and preferences are changing faster now than ever before. The telecommunications market is dramatically different than it was four short years ago. It might surprise you to know that the third largest phone company in the United States today is a cable company, Comcast. Or that in the South, 19.6 percent of adults live in households with only wireless phones, according a survey conducted by the National Centers for Disease Control.
Competition pushed down the rates for bundles of Internet, phone and TV service in 2008 by up to 20 percent, to as low as $80 per month, according to Consumer Reports.
Technology has continued to evolve. The consumer’s need for services has changed. Other states have updated their laws.
Don’t be misled by those who oppose modernizing outdated laws. Competition is here. Other states are taking advantage of it, and Alabama needs to do so as well. In the 21st century, success in economic development will be determined in part by which states have the technology infrastructure to compete for new, high tech, high paying jobs.
Quality service, fair pricing and new features and services will be determined by which areas have rules that permit full competition among all providers on a level playing field. Voice over Internet, cable phone service, cell phones that far outnumber land lines are benefits of competition that we could not have imagined in the telecommunications world 20 years ago, or even four years ago. Alabama must remain competitive by updating antiquated rules, or risk falling behind in the race to provide good jobs and a rising quality of life for all its citizens.

Hance Haney

Director and Senior Fellow of the Technology & Democracy Project
Hance Haney served as Director and Senior Fellow of the Technology & Democracy Project at the Discovery Institute, in Washington, D.C. Haney spent ten years as an aide to former Senator Bob Packwood (OR), and advised him in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Communications Subcommittee during the deliberations leading to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He subsequently held various positions with the United States Telecom Association and Qwest Communications. He earned a B.A. in history from Willamette University and a J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.