Time is money.
And that was the bottom line of supporters and opponents of a bill aimed at encouraging faster rollout of high-speed Internet during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday. The Judiciary committee gained limited jurisdiction to consider the controversial bill that would free the Bells to offer broadband services beyond their local phone region without first opening their market to competition. Although the bill has bipartisan support, so does a competing bill introduced in the Judiciary committee last month that does not exempt the Bells from market-opening requirements, but in fact tightens them. The Broadband Competition and Incentive Act and the American Broadband and Competition Act, H.R. 1697 and 1698, taken together, also adds financial incentives to deploy the telcos' broadband technology, digital subscriber line, in under-served rural and other areas. Like everyone else, I want my constituents to get high-speed Internet access as soon as possible with as many competitive choices as possible.