Eastern Management Group States Broadband Deregulation will Spur a Revival in Telecom Investment.

Business Editors

BEDMINSTER, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 1, 2001

The Eastern Management Group Releases a White Paper on How

Legislation Intended to Spur High Speed Internet Access

Connections will Promote a Turnaround

Business Credit Solutions

• Get a Credit Report
• Get a D&B D-U-N-S Number
• Monitor My Business Credit - FREE TRIAL!

Business Credit Advice

• Business Credit Basics
• Build My Business Credit
• Extend Credit to Customers
• Use My Credit to Get Loans

Sector

Encouraging all competitors in the broadband market to speedup their build outs of high speed Internet connections is the key to reversing the downward spiral in the telecommunications and high tech sectors.

The Eastern Management Group, a management consulting firm focused on the telecommunications industry, believes that broadband deregulation is essential to revitalizing the economy. The Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act, also known as Tauzin-Dingell after its co-sponsors, as well as other pro-market deregulatory legislative initiatives will, if successful, have a marked effect on the tech sector and the U.S. economy as whole. According to The Eastern Management Group's industry white paper "The Economic Benefits of Breaking the Bandwidth Bottleneck," deregulation of the high speed Internet access market will result in tens of billions of dollars in spending on network technology, high-bandwidth applications and online entertainment, thus putting the New Economy back on track.

John Malone, president and CEO of The Eastern Management Group, stated, "Broadband deregulation is the most efficient and expedient way to promote an economic recovery across the board. In bringing regulatory parity to all providers of broadband access, Congress hopes to benefit residential consumers while jumpstarting a moribund tech sector." The industry veteran went on to say that promoting the creation of new regional high speed data networks will benefit every segment of the IT sector from switches and routers to components. "Cable companies and fixed wireless carriers have the ability to build new networks offering high speed data services, but the wireline telecommunications companies are discouraged from doing the same due to regulatory uncertainty. Broadband deregulation will spur these companies onward and the end results will benefit Main Street and Wall Street."

Malone, whose consulting firm The Eastern Management Group has over 400 clients in all areas of the telecommunications industry, addressed issues relating to how CLECs might be affected by a decrease in regulation in the broadband sector. "Tauzin-Dingell is focused on bringing high speed Internet access to a residential customer who currently uses mind-numbingly slow dial-up access to surf the Web. CLECs, on the other hand, focus almost exclusively on business customers that already have options for high speed Internet access." According to the telecom executive, leveling the playing field between the cable carriers and the local telephone companies will have little effect on CLECs.