Internet Community Fights Pro-Monopoly Bill; AISPA Says Tauzin-Dingell Measure Would Kill Internet Market Competition, Harm Consumers.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2001

American ISP Association Executive Director Sue Ashdown expressed extreme opposition to high speed Internet legislation re-introduced by Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. "Billy" Tauzin.

AISPA stated that the "Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2001" bill would do nothing more than rescind a requirement in 1996 Telecommunications Act that Bell monopolies first open their local markets to competition prior to entering into new markets outside their regions.

"This legislation is a direct attack against the blossoming Internet service market and American consumers," Sue Ashdown, Executive Director of the American Internet Service Provider Association, said today. "This bill rewards the anti-competitive and anti-consumer scheming the Bells have engaged in for five years."

"Five years ago, Congress promised America competition in every aspect of the telecommunications market," Ashdown said. "Five years later, the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) still have unmitigated control of more than 90 percent of their markets in most areas. Independent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) introduced Americans to the Internet. Today ISPs are threatened not only by anti-competitive tactics by the Bell monopolies desperate to snuff out competition, but now by now by poor legislation like this as well."

Ashdown went on to criticize the legislation's likely effect on the ISP industry. "Without competition in local markets, neither ISP's nor the local phone competitors we rely on will survive for long. By passing this measure, Congress would endorse the predatory pricing and anti-market tactics of the Bells. Small, independent ISPs cannot compete against both the Bell monopolies and a Congress in their back pocket."

"Congress should reject this legislation and protect the interests of consumers and competition, not special interest monopolies," Ashdown said.

AISPA has spent its first year in existence doing battle with the forces trying to overwhelm, undercut and exploit independent ISPs. The group already has thousands of supporters nationwide, and brings to bear the full voice of the 7000+ ISPs operating today in the United States.

The American ISP Association is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring and maintaining a competitive environment to nurture new technologies and benefit consumers and Internet service providers. For more information on the American ISP Association, visit www.americanisps.org.

To schedule an interview with Sue Ashdown, Executive Director of American ISP Association, please contact Mike Burita at [phone] ext 130.