II

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 710

To promote interoperability in the evolving information infrastructure ensuring maximum competition, innovation, and consumer choice, and for

other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

APRIL 6 (legislative day, APRIL 5), 1995

Mr. KERREY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

A BILL

To promote interoperability in the evolving information infrastructure ensuring maximum competition, innovation,

and consumer choice, and for other purposes.

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 ‘‘Communications Inter5 operability Act of 1995’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—

8 (1) the rapid convergence of communications,

9 computing and video technologies holds the promise
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1 of bringing revolutionary improvements in the deliv2 ery of a variety of information and other commu3 nications services to the American public;

4 (2) interoperability will promote competition

5 among technologies, providers, and media, leading to

6 the greatest choices, lowest prices, highest value, and

7 maximum innovation;

8 (3) interoperability at key interfaces of the de9 veloping information infrastructure of the United

10 States will ensure that existing and new components

11 work together easily, quickly, and transparently as

12 the components of today’s telephone system;

13 (4) interoperability will help ensure that the in14 formation and communications infrastructure of the

15 future will be accessible to the broadest number of

16 people, both users and vendors of products and serv17 ices;

18 (5) open interfaces at critical connection points

19 are essential to achieving interoperability and the

20 smooth transfer of information throughout the sys21 tem; and

22 (6) the development of an interoperable infor23 mation infrastructure based on open interfaces is in

24 the interest of all Americans, and the Federal Gov-
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1 ernment should act as a facilitator to achieve this

2 goal.

3 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

4 As used in this Act:

5 (1) INTEROPERABILITY.—The term ‘‘interoper6 ability’’ means—

7 (A) the ability of two or more systems

8 (such as devices, databases, networks, or tech9 nologies) to interact in concert with one an10 other, in accordance with a prescribed method,

11 to achieve a predictable result;

12 (B) the ability of diverse systems made by

13 different vendors to communicate with each

14 other so that users do not have to make major

15 adjustments to account for differences in prod16 ucts or services; and

17 (C) compatibility among systems at speci18 fied levels of interaction, including physical

19 compatibility.

20 The compatibility described in subparagraph (C)

21 should be achieved through open interface specifica22 tions.

23 (2) INTERFACE SPECIFICATIONS.—The term

24 ‘‘interface specifications’’ means the technical pa25 rameters for the manner in which systems, products,
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1 and services communicate with each other and may

2 be limited to that information necessary to achieve

3 interoperability, leaving the implementation and re4 maining product design to the creative abilities of

5 competitive suppliers.

6 SEC. 4. PROMOTING INTEROPERABILITY.

7 The Federal Communications Commission, and other

8 appropriate Federal Government agencies (such as the

9 National Institute of Standards and Technology), shall

10 monitor the voluntary industry standards processes, and

11 assist private sector standards bodies in the identification

12 and promotion of open and interoperable interface speci13 fications as needed.

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