NTCA Letter To House Commerce Committee Counters Prior Call By Techies

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, an association representing locally owned and controlled telecommunications cooperatives and commercial companies in rural America, sent a letter Friday to members of the House Commerce Committee urging lawmakers to oppose a recent request by a number of technology companies to ban state regulation of Internet protocol-based services. "As you know, the FCC is statutorily required to provide its National Broadband Plan blueprint to the Congress on February 17, 2010. Consequently, any consideration of a request of the nature that is outlined in the AT&T et. al. communication to you, on a stand-alone basis, would be premature and disruptive to this major undertaking the FCC already has underway," wrote National Telecommunications Cooperative Association Vice President Government Affairs Tom Wacker. He urges policy-makers to oppose legislation that would subject IP-based services to exclusive federal jurisdiction and says such a move would not be an affirmation of existing policy.