 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
The Telecom Future In Pennsylvania
by Chloe Albanesius
The deregulation of telecommunications services in Pennsylvania would benefit the state's consumers, according to a Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) report released Wednesday.
Certain Pennsylvania telecom regulations will cease Dec. 31, and without a less regulatory regime, said Randolph May, director of communications policy studies at PFF and co-author of the study, "ultimately, there will be less investment and less innovation and few advanced services offered because [those that] are presently regulated just won't have the incentive ... to keep up with the competitors who are not regulated like the cable companies."
May met with legislators in Harrisburg on Wednesday to discuss the issue. "There's the opportunity to adopt ... less regulatory legislation that provides a framework for going forward," he said. "The people who follow these things day to day say at this point it's not clear what's going to happen. Presumably they will have to act" before the current rules expire.
He noted several pending legislative proposals that he believes would further restrict and hurt the state's telecom industry. One bill, S.B. 30, would require Verizon Communications to file a modified network modernization plan to provide for 100 percent deployment of high-speed Internet services over its network by the end of 2008.
May called that a "misguided and harmful" plan that would "in essence take away the managerial business decision-making from Verizon" and instead "turn over their decisions to others that don't have the same marketplace incentives." He contends that such decisions "tend not to be based on sound economy, but rather they turn out to be more political."
California Legislators To Discuss ID Chips
California state Sen. Debra Bowen on Thursday will lead a debate on the issues surrounding radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology.
Retailers place RFID tags in their products in order to track inventory more accurately, but privacy advocates have expressed concern that the chips could be used to track customers and their purchasing habits.
Bowen, a Democrat who chairs the Senate New Technologies Subcommittee, held a previous hearing on the topic Aug. 18 and will use Thursday's hearing as an update on recent developments. The San Francisco Public Library Commission, for example, recently approved plans to equip its library books with RFID chips by 2006.
Local E-Procurement Expected To Increase
The ability of state and local to procure goods and services electronically is scheduled to hit the $1.1 billion mark by fiscal 2008, according to a study released Wednesday by market research firm INPUT.
Several states already have implemented portions of e-procurement plans, but not many have completed the process. State and local e-procurement spending is currently at $500 million and is expected to grow at a rate of 17 percent per year, said James Krouse, manager of state and local market analysis at INPUT.
The practice is growing in popularity due in part to "reverse funding," Krouse said of a process where contractors pay startup costs and later recoup those funds when the projects post profits. The practice has drawn some fire from supporters of competitive bidding, but states like Virginia have embraced reverse funding.
Virginia Awards Telecom Services Contract To MCI
The Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) on Wednesday awarded a four-year contract to MCI for a wide array of telecom services. The company will provide long-distance telephone services and a comprehensive data network and Internet services, with savings up to $3.13 million per year.
"The contract allows us to transition to new technologies as needs dictate while strengthening accountability through enhanced performance measures," Gov. Mark Warner said in a release.
VITA was established in July of this year to consolidate the state's technology services. Virginia has paired with MCI since 1992 for similar telecom services.
North Carolina Prosecutor Targets Telemarketers
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper was granted a request by the courts last week to stop an Arizona company's allegedly deceptive telemarketing practices.
The company, Consumer Protection Publication, called North Carolina consumers ostensibly to offer help with credit-card and loan payments but allegedly duped victims into giving more money. The Wake County Superior Court agreed to block the company from telemarketing in North Carolina while Cooper investigates the charges. Cooper also is requesting civil penalties and refunds of the funds that the company took from consumers.
The company started contacting North Carolina residents in July 2002, promising to help eradicate debt if they paid $397. Of those who paid the fee, some received nothing, while others simply received lists of credit-card companies or how-to guides for fixing their credit.
Cooper said if state residents sign the "do not call" registry to block telemarketing calls, that will help ease the problem. "If you're on the registry and a company you don't already do business with calls you," he said in a release, "don't trust what they're trying to sell you."
Gov. Pawlenty To Discuss Drug 'Re-Importation'
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday will appear before a Senate committee to discuss the purchase of Canadian drugs for Americans via the Internet and from Canadian pharmacies.
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, invited Pawlenty to discuss Minnesota's plan to let state residents buy drugs from Canada, as well as Pawlenty's recent meeting with Manitoba, Canada, Premier Gary Doer.
In a Sunday column for the St. Cloud Times, Pawlenty said the state "is working aggressively on a variety of fronts, the biggest being the creation of a Web site to support and assist residents in importing prescriptions from Canada." He said the Food and Drug Administration's safety concerns are "very appropriate" but are being "used to ignore the facts [because] Canada's [pharmaceutical] regulatory system is strong and effective."
He acknowledged that "re-importation" of drugs made in America and other countries but purchased from Canada is not a long-term solution to high drug prices but "a way to bring Minnesotans some short-term relief [until] folks in Washington get their act together."
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
