Independent Internet Service Providers For America

If writing to Senators:                                If writing to House Representatives:
The Honorable (full name)                            The Honorable (full name)
(Room #) (name) Senate Office Building        —OR—    (Room #) (name) House Office Building
Washington, DC 20510    Washington, DC 20515

Date

Your name
Your company’s name
Your address line 1
Your address line 2
City, State, Zip

Dear Senator (last name):    —OR—     Dear Representative (last name):

I am writing to you as a constituent with a vested interest in the telecommunications industry and independent Internet service. I am very concerned about the proposed changes to the telecommunications industry—specifically the proposed mergers of AT&T/SBC and MCI/Verizon, TV franchise legislation, the Telecom Act re-write proposals, and anti-municipal broadband bills.

I do not think any of these proposals are going to be good for anyone but the largest corporations for several reasons. First, they will discourage healthy competition. Second, they will have negative effects on consumers, business, and non-profits. Third, they will affect the economy negatively. Fourth, they will spell ruin for Internet service providers (IISPs).

Discourage Healthy Competition

Perhaps the worst outcome of these mergers if they are approved will be the tremendous negative effect on competition. The number of companies in this industry will be greatly reduced, and you cannot maintain competition with only a few players. Much like professional sports, we need many choices to make sure we get only the best and those who will do the best job for the best price.

These changes will also result in higher prices, because aggressive pricing only happens in competitive markets. They will also result in reduced innovation, because only when firms must compete for business do they invest in the research and development that results in better offerings. Remember, it was 7,000—not 10 or 20—ISPs that made the Internet accessible for America because they had to either give customers excellent service, easy to use products, and reasonable prices or lose business.

Negative Effects on Consumers, Business, and Non-Profits

The proposed mergers will result in the death of the IISPs, which in turn will leave communities without the skilled front-line of Internet security and network management they have come to rely on. The IISPs are the technology experts people turn to for help and the ones that provide instruction and value-added services in addition to Internet access. AT&T and MCI are not be able to provide this same local, hands-on assistance and will leave Internet users less educated at a time when they need to be more educated to fight the continuing proliferation of worms, virus problems, and identity theft.

Without this valuable support emerging technologies like wi-fi, VOIP, and broadband will find it very hard to penetrate the market. Consumers have difficulty adapting to new technologies and need the help of IISPs to understand emerging technologies. What people don’t understand they don’t buy, so if IISPs are forced out of business people will be without a bridge to new technology—and consumers and technology producers will suffer as a result.

Another important group that will suffer if the mergers are approved is non-profits, because many of them get free Internet access and technical support from IISPs. They can’t afford to pay retail prices, and without Internet access both they and the people who depend on them will suffer.

Negative Effect on the Economy

State franchise agreements for television and anti-municipality broadband bills will mean the end of many jobs and take tax revenue away from communities. If regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) are given state franchise rights, municipalities and counties will lose franchise fees and communications taxes. The passing of anti-municipality broadband bills like HR 2726 will mean cities and towns will not be allowed to deploy their own broadband infrastructure. If phone and cable companies don’t either (and it is very likely they won’t), communities will not have the Internet access necessary to compete in the global workplace. Americans are competing for jobs with people all over the world and needs municipal broadband access to be able to do so. Additionally, the RBOCs fiber deployment is redlining—in essence, promoting digital discrimination. For example, Verizon is only putting FiOS in affluent neighborhoods that already have DSL service. This type of behavior is not good for America and the economy as a whole.

An additional detriment to the economy will be lost jobs. RBOCs have downsized almost 100,000 employees in the last two years, and will get rid of another 35,000 if these mergers are approved. And these mergers will cause IISPs to close, resulting in even more job losses and subsequent loss of tax revenue and individual purchasing that keeps local economies going.

Ruin for IISPs

Mentioned earlier and also very important to consider is the fact that these mergers will drive IISPs out of business. If the FCC gives DSL equal treatment as cable modem IISPs will not be able to negotiate a favorable commercial agreement with the RBOCs for DSL circuits and will have to close. Currently, because DSL service is regulated, RBOCs charge the same prices to end users and IISPs. Remove the regulations and tariffs that enforce this, and RBOCs will abandon IISP sales in favor of selling only to end users. Thousands of jobs will be lost and over 7 million subscribers will be forced to switch to the TeleCable companies for Internet service—and lose their freedom of choice. Further, when the competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) lost UNE-P in December, AT&T and MCI left the market, resulting in less competition and higher rates for consumers, especially small business.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and consider my comments. As you can see, the proposed changes to the telecommunications industry will not be in the best interest of consumers or small business. Small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy, and they simply cannot compete with corporations if these corporations are given more leeway and considerations. I don’t want to see small businesses (IISPs) going out of business, and I don’t want to see the loss of thousands of jobs. I believe that you don’t, either.

Sincerely,

Your name