II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1014

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure competition in the

provision of electronic security services.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 24 (legislative day, APRIL 19), 1993

Mr. DECONCINI (for himself, Mr. BREAUX, Mr. DURENBERGER, and Mr.

D’AMATO) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure

competition in the provision of electronic security services.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Alarm Industry Com5 petition Act of 1993’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—

8 (1) the public interest will be best served by

9 continued vigorous competition in the provision of

10 alarm security monitoring services;
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1 (2) because alarm security monitoring services

2 are dependent upon access to the local telephone

3 network, there is a substantial possibility that com4 petition in the provision of alarm security monitor5 ing services will cease to exist if these services are

6 provided by the Bell Telephone Companies, which

7 possess monopoly power;

8 (3) current providers of alarm security monitor9 ing services are overwhelmingly small businesses,

10 with substantial investment in plant and equipment,

11 and they employ over 125,000 individuals;

12 (4) the alarm security monitoring industry pro13 vides services that protect the life, property, and

14 safety of millions of Americans; and

15 (5) it is essential to preserve the existing com16 petitive State in the alarm security monitoring serv17 ice industry so long as there exists a substantial pos18 sibility that the Bell Telephone Companies can use

19 their monopoly power to act anticompetitively when

20 providing alarm security monitoring services.

21 SEC. 3. ALARM SECURITY MONITORING SERVICE COMPETI22 TION.

23 Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 is

24 amended by adding at the end thereof the following new

25 section:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 227. ALARM SECURITY MONITORING SERVICE COM2 PETITION.

3 ‘‘(a) No Bell Telephone Company, or any affiliate of

4 the company, shall provide alarm security monitoring serv5 ices for the protection of life, safety or property. A Bell

6 Telephone Company may transport alarm security mon7 itoring signals but on a common carrier basis only.

8 ‘‘(b) For the purposes of this section, ‘alarm security

9 monitoring’ is defined as an information service designed

10 to protect life, safety, or property via the remote super11 vision of conditions at commercial and residential prem12 ises, including—

13 ‘‘(1) the supervision at a remote central office

14 of signals from sensors that detect intrusion, heat,

15 fire, medical emergencies, and similar threats to life,

16 safety, and property emanating from the monitored

17 premises; and

18 ‘‘(2) the notification by the remote central of19 fice of appropriate entities in the event that the sig20 nals indicate the likelihood of burglary, fire, vandal21 ism, bodily injury, or similar emergencies at the

22 monitored premises.

23 ‘‘(c)(1) For the purposes of this section the term ‘Bell

24 Telephone Company’ means any of the following

25 companies:

26 ‘‘(A) Bell Telephone Company of Nevada.
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1 ‘‘(B) Illinois Bell Telephone Company.

2 ‘‘(C) Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Incor3 porated.

4 ‘‘(D) Michigan Bell Telephone Company.

5 ‘‘(E) New England Telephone and Telegraph

6 Company.

7 ‘‘(F) New Jersey Bell Telephone Company.

8 ‘‘(G) New York Telephone Company.

9 ‘‘(H) US West Communications Company.

10 ‘‘(I) South Central Bell Telephone Company.

11 ‘‘(J) Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph

12 Company.

13 ‘‘(K) Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.

14 ‘‘(L) The Bell Telephone Company of Penn15 sylvania.

16 ‘‘(M) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone

17 Company.

18 ‘‘(N) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone

19 Company of Maryland.

20 ‘‘(O) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone

21 Company of Virginia.

22 ‘‘(P) The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone

23 Company of West Virginia.

24 ‘‘(Q) The Diamond State Telephone Company.

25 ‘‘(R) The Ohio Bell Telephone Company.
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1 ‘‘(S) The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph

2 Company.

3 ‘‘(T) The Wisconsin Telephone Company.

4 ‘‘(2) The term ‘Bell Telephone Company’ in5 cludes any successor or assign of any such company

6 that owns facilities over which are provided tele7 phone exchange services or that is so affiliated with

8 an entity that owns facilities that provide telephone

9 exchange services.’’.

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