Verizon plans to invest at least $3 billion in transformative technologies, such as FTTP, Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) broadband wireless, and residential VoIP, through 2005, said company president Lawrence Babbio, speaking at the Progress & Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit.
However, Babbio said current regulatory policy "acts a brake on such investment." Babbio called on regulators to "stop making policy by looking in the rear-view mirror." He offered four principles on which an updated policy should be built:
- "Do not apply unbundling obligations to new broadband networks. Unbundling and pricing policies applied in the past to stimulate competition in voice telephony are unnecessary in the highly
competitive broadband data world." - "Allow the market to work, free of extensive and unnecessary regulation that stifles innovation."
- "Eliminate economic regulation of high-speed services. Remove price regulation and tariffs, and otherwise treat broadband with the light regulatory touch accorded to information services (Title I). Wireline telephone companies that offer video as part of broadband services should not have to obtain cable franchises in every local jurisdiction, since they already have the right of way to deploy networks. Revenue needs of local governments can be met without the delay and red tape inherent in the franchising process."
- "Adopt a national policy that pre-empts other levels of government. Local jurisdictional borders do not apply to the realm of the Internet. Current policy subjects investments to the conflicting agendas and interpretations of regulatory agencies at every level of government."
