High-speed Internet promised if bill passes

INDIANAPOLIS -- SBC Communications pledged Thursday to expand high-speed Internet service to 57 more communities in Indiana -- if a bill it has been pushing in the General Assembly passes.\nThe San Antonio-based telecom giant said it would provide the technology, considered crucial for economic development in small communities across the state, within one year of the bill's passage.\n"We will more than double the number of current communities served. We're pretty excited about it," SBC Indiana President George Fleetwood said during a Statehouse news conference.\nThe bill has passed the House and is now pending in the Senate, where it has been assigned to the Utility and Regulatory Affairs Committee.\nIt would require the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to consider an SBC-supported method for setting rates that former monopolies such as SBC and Verizon charge competitors for leasing their local phone-access lines.\nIt also would remove broadbrand services such as high-speed Internet from the jurisdiction of the commission.\nSBC has said the bill would level the playing field for local service and protect company jobs, in part by allowing it to charge more reasonable prices for leasing its lines. Opponents, including AT&T and WorldCom, say it will stifle competition in the local service and high-speed Internet markets.\nSome lawmakers balked at SBC's pledge, saying it was simply a tactic to win votes.\n"They should have been doing this already," said Rep. Dave Crooks, D-Washington. "The bill should simply die"