THE CUTTING EDGE: COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : Agreement Apparently Near on Telecom Bill

A congressional panel crafting a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s 61-year-old communications laws will hold its first formal meeting in more than a month today amid signs that members have reached accord on most of the issues affecting the cable, telephone and broadcast industries.

In one key compromise, staff members of the House-Senate conference committee have tentatively agreed to continue cable rate regulation until March 31, 1999, in exchange for dropping language that would have permitted the Federal Communications Commission to single out so-called bad actors in the cable industry for charging excessive rates.

The 42 lawmakers who make up the conference committee finalizing a measure that would open up the multibillion-dollar telecommunications market to greater competition are scrambling to complete work before Congress adjourns Dec. 15.

But the panel remains divided over several contentious issues, including the funding of universal telephone service, media ownership and a long-distance entry test, sources say. And it remains unclear whether a proposed compromise on the so-called cyberporn provision--which would sharply restrict the transmission of pornography over computer networks--will hold up.

The legislation promises to have an enormous effect on the nation’s fast-growing communications industries and will probably affect consumers’ telephone rates, cable TV bills, and choices in electronic entertainment and information services for decades to come. But the conference committee must not only reconcile conflicting House and Senate bills, but also meet the concerns of President Clinton, who has strong objections to some provisions of the bill.

Staff members have agreed to embrace language that would bar telephone companies from acquiring more than 10% ownership or any management interest in a cable company in the same market. They also appeared to be close to resolving disputes involving the burglar alarm industry, electronic information services, media cross-ownership and telephone manufacturing. However, because staff members remained huddled into the night on Tuesday conducting negotiations, details of those agreements could not be learned.

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block is an issue that most observers thought there was widespread agreement on: universal telephone service.

Although nearly all parties continue to embrace the idea of a fund to underwrite money-losing rural phone service, rural and urban legislators are divided over how to administer the fund.