Alcatel Cheers IPTV Draft

WASHINGTON -- Alcatel (NYSE: ALA - News; Paris: CGEP.PA - News) notes that House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton and Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton have circulated draft legislation, the Broadband Internet Transmission Services ("BITS") Act, that would create regulatory certainty for the deployment of broadband video services.

The following statement should be attributed to Tim Krause, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President for Government Relations for Alcatel in North America, who testified today before the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee on the forthcoming BITS Act:

"Alcatel endorses the BITS Act, and requests the Committee move it forward in the legislative process without delay. The BITS Act will ensure the continued growth of the U.S. broadband market by creating legal and regulatory certainty for the services that flow over powerful new broadband networks, such as the IPTV networks being built by Alcatel for U.S. telecommunications carriers, in several ways:

"First, it generally protects nascent broadband services from regulation at the Federal, State, and local level, and does so in a socially conscious manner by preserving important public policies, such as E911.

"The bill creates a streamlined Federal video franchise process for broadband video services that will ensure they can be a key driver of continued broadband deployment immediately. The BITS Act achieves this goal while protecting the ability of municipalities to manage their local rights of way, as well as the video franchise fee revenue streams they have come to rely on.

"Alcatel also supports the inclusion into the BITS Act of Internet Neutrality principles, which promotes consumer broadband demand, as well as protections for municipal entry into the broadband market when necessary."

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