Telecom modifications get Quinn's signature
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[June 17, 2010]
SPRINGFIELD -- For the last 25
years, the state's telecommunications regulations have remained
nearly unchanged, while new technologies like cell phones and
wireless routers have boomed.
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But on Tuesday, Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a new plan that would
loosen the regulations on telecommunication companies and open the
way for new investment in wireless and cellular technologies. The
new law took effect upon Quinn's approval. Telecommunication
companies like AT&T had advocated for modernizing regulations and
claimed that Illinois was losing out on business and investment to
other states.
Quinn hailed the new law as an opportunity for the state to
bridge the technological gap.
"We in Illinois, if we're going to be prosperous, need to make
sure that we have a modern, up-to-date, well-connected
telecommunications system. That includes broadband deployment and
wireless technologies that are state-of-the-art," Quinn said.
The Citizens Utility Board, a nonprofit focused on consumer
protection, had previously expressed concerns that if regulations
were loosened, AT&T and others would neglect consumers who relied on
landline technology.
CUB spokesman Jim Chilsen said the new law does keep consumer
choice plans that will give landline users the option to keep
affordable services.
"A major focus of CUB was to make sure that those consumer choice
plans were protected. An earlier version of this bill would have set
the stage for those plans being eliminated in three years, and under
this proposal, the rate freeze is extended and those plans get new
life," he said.
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State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said the new law struck a
good balance between business and consumer interests.
"We are handcuffing AT&T a little bit by forcing them to provide
these landlines at a time when they're losing a great deal of
business in the landline business. But we just felt that (the
package of landline plans) was so important," he said.
Landline pricing plans under the new law would stay this way
until 2013, when lawmakers would reconsider the plans.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By KEVIN LEE]
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