Issue Position: Telecommunications

Issue Position

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, maintaining a competitive marketplace is one of Rep. Markey's top priorities. Competition remains Ed's economic mantra-in his words, "ruthless Darwinian competition that would bring a smile to Adam Smith."

Accordingly, he has been instrumental in breaking up anti-consumer, anti-innovative monopolies in electricity, long-distance and local telephone service, cable television, and international satellite services. He was one of the only members of the Commerce Committee to fight AT&T's monopoly in the early 80s and is the principal House advocate of breaking down monopoly bottlenecks to local telecommunications competition.

In addition, as Chairman of this panel from 1987 to 1995, and as the Subcommittee's most senior Democrat from 1995 to 2006, Ed has been a fighter for public interest telecommunications policies that foster innovation while also promoting diversity, localism, and universal, affordable access to technologies and services.

Ed Markey is the author of the Children's Television Act, the V-Chip law, numerous laws promoting access to technologies for the disabled community, and multiple provisions of law ensuring consumer privacy. Ed also successfully fought for the establishment of the national "Do Not Call" registry to protect consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls, which grew out of his 1991 "Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Moreover, Ed opposed the FCC's sweeping deregulation of media ownership regulations and continues to battle for a diversity of voices in America's national and local media mix. He also proposed a successful amendment to the "Can Spam Act" that prohibits sending "spam" to wireless devices such as cell phones without authorization.

Ed is now fighting to protect the Internet from the imposition of new bottleneck fees and discrimination. He is the author of a pending bill to safeguard "network neutrality" to preserve the Internet as an open architecture platform for innovation, entrepreneurial investment, and diverse communications. Ed is also eager to pursue policies to promote ubiquitous deployment of high speed, competitive, and affordable broadband service to all Americans.

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