Both the House and the Senate are finalizing their drafts of legislation regarding state telecommunications policy.  The House version (HB 789, King) does not, at this time, contain language requiring large providers to continue offering the telecommunications discounts first established in 1995.  The initial Senate version (SB 332, Fraser) does continue the discounts.

As both committees continue their work, it is imperative that chairmen of both the House Regulated Industries Committee and the Senate Business and Commerce Committee hear from libraries about the importance of these telecommunications discounts. These bills will likely move very quickly, so librarians are urged to contact members of the committees as soon as possible.

CALL TO ACTION

All librarians are urged to contact the offices of Rep. Phil King and Sen. Troy Fraser to support continuation of the telecommunications discounts for libraries, schools, and institutions of higher education. Librarians should also contact the Speaker of the House at http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=82&rep=tom.craddick and the Lt. Governor at http://www.ltgov.state.tx.us/Contact/?PHPSESSID=faa9cb1ee0d529287ee22939cf4397fa.

Rep. Phil King, phone: (512) 463-0738; fax: (512)463-1957; email: phil.king@house.state.tx.us

Sen. Troy Fraser, phone: (512)463-0124; fax: (512)475-3732; email: troy.fraser@senate.state.tx.us

Your action is crucial! We must act quickly. Please see the information below and, when you contact these elected officials, be sure to describe what the effect will be on your library if you are no longer able to get these discounts.

WHAT TO ASK FOR

Ask for continuation of the telecommunications discounts for libraries, schools, and institutions of higher education as specified in both Chapters 58 and 59 of the Utilities Code.

BACKGROUND

The incentive regulation program created under PURA of 1995 dramatically helped Texas libraries provide diverse and increasingly robust access to telecommunications services, particularly advanced information services. 

• All mid-size and larger Texas libraries and educational institutions benefited from discounted T-1 rates, especially since the published T-1 tariffs made it easy to project future costs.  Published tariffs also assured small institutions that they were receiving accurate pricing.
• The discounts providing private network services at 105% or 110% of cost are particularly important to larger institutions that need advanced services (for instance, frame relay service to link branches to central libraries or campuses in a school district) or T-3 connections.
• Discounted T-3 connections also allow Texas A&M and UT Austin's THEnet to provide affordable Internet access at T-1 speeds to many small and mid-size public libraries and school districts.  The annual cost for THEnet is approximately $625,000. Without the discounts, the cost would rise to $3.3 million.

The savings realized by libraries range from the thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Without these discounts, even the largest libraries would be unable to sustain their current services.  Libraries would have to cut back substantially on their Internet access or reduce book budgets by as much as 25% to 30%, as estimated by several library systems.