Wireless lobbies for Preemption as Senate Wrangles with Telecom Reform

WIRELESS LOBBIES FOR PREEMPTION AS SENATE WRANGLES WITH TELECOM REFORM
[SOURCE: RCRWireless News, AUTHOR: Heather Forsgren Weaver]
CTIA President Steve Largent appeared at Tuesday’s hearing to plead again for the wireless industry’s top telecom-reform priority as the latest Senate draft bill did not include preemption of state regulation. The House of Representatives passed its version of telecommunications reform last Thursday without a preemption provision. State regulators are pushing back hard. “We are concerned and raise the issue today because the wireless industry has launched an aggressive lobbying effort to create a technology-specific preemption standard for their telecommunications services. From our point of view, it makes little sense to eliminate scores of consumer protections at the state level solely on the basis of the particular technology used. In the case of wireless, it makes even less sense because the industry has prospered so well under the division of authority that now exists,” said Philip Jones, commissioner with the Washington Utilities & Transportation Commission and chairman of the federal legislative subcommittee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=26598