Congress should use ‘a light regulatory touch’ in revising the Te...

in the communications industry” but it shouldn’t be “a coach, telling everyone how to play the game,” Tate told the group. “A light regulatory touch promotes investment and encourages competition,” she said: “I believe in regulatory humility.” She said an NTIA study found that investment grew because the FCC loosened regulation through the Triennial Review Order. The TRO “resulted in more than $6 billion in investment by Verizon and $5 billion in investment by AT&T,” she said: “That’s $11 billion by just 2 companies.” Tate said a new Telecom Act should go beyond promoting deployment of broadband and also encourage subscribing: “It does no good to have broadband deployed to every home in the country if no one is going to subscribe to it.” A new Telecom Act also should “recognize that as technologies change, consumers are still going to demand that the telecommunications industry provide the same level of service in terms of public safety that we have all come to expect,” she said. She said that means consumers “will be counting on 911 to be able to locate them if they call for help [and] will be counting on the FBI to execute wiretaps when a court authorizes them to.” Consumers also “will be counting on their burglar alarm alerting the call center when their house is broken into,” she said. Congress and the FCC should “make sure the transition to new technologies doesn’t undermine services that people rely on for their safety and security.”