Telecommunications and the Internet

Rep. Markey is a national leader on technology policy and consumer protection. From 1987 to 2008, Rep. Markey served either as the Chairman or the Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications, where he was the principal author of many of the laws now governing our nation’s telephone, broadcasting, cable television, wireless, and broadband communications systems.   He was  the author of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, H.R. 3458, in 2009. The bill would ensure that as the Internet continues to evolve and remains a level playing field guided by the principles of openness and competition.   
 
Competition remains Chairman Markey’s economic mantra. Accordingly, he has been instrumental in breaking up anti-consumer, anti-innovative monopolies in electricity, telephone service, cable television, and international satellite services. He was a principal author of the requirement that the Bell Operating companies accept local telephone service in the 90s and recently he has spoken out against the proposed AT&T / T-Mobile merger. His pro-competition policies have  benefited job creation in Eastern Massachusetts and throughout the country. He is a champion for Net Neutrality and nondiscrimination on the Internet and for new sources of effective competition to cable TV franchises, telephone operators, and other wireless services.