mr. cicconi. we now go to the president of telnet worldwide. we are thankful you are here today to represent the industry and yourself. please turn on that microphone, pull it up close, and we look forward to your comments as well. >> chairman walden, chairman upton, ranking member eshoo and ranking member waxman. i am mark iannuzzi, the president of telnet worldwide. we are head quartered in troy, michigan. we are very privileged and proud to be the communications ckalamazoo and st. arper's. we have services in classic voice and advanced data and networking services. in this increasingly connected world, we help unify and simplify all the ways that businesses communication and collaborate, providing them big business solutions to small businesses at prices they can fford. its d.n.a. of these companies is about entrepreneurs serving entrepreneurs. a little background about myself. i was born and raised in detroit. and rican engineer entrepreneur. i built telnet with my brothers 15 years ago from th

mr. cicconi and mr. iannuzzi, just quickly, what actions are required by the fcc in order to ensure that competition will continue in actually thrive in an all-ip world? appreciate if it is quick and abc because i don't have that much time. start with you, mr. cicconi. >> i think you have competition today mr. welch, and i think if the sec moves forward the ip transition its early on to take a look at what regulations are needed going forward to help preserve the competition that's there today. i certainly grant that, but i would also suggest that on a going forward basis that it would be a mistake to assume that the problems of the present and the future are necessary the same as they were in 1996 or 1934. so i think the notion of taking legacy rules and applying into new technology is something the national broadband plan actually spoke to and it talked about how applying legacy rules could actually retard the investments that were necessary and could have unattended consequences of siphoning investmen

mr. cicconi, if i may. as a jump in from vermont mention can he and i worked on different issues, especially concerning rural call completion, big for both of us. i have a world history. i go from urban to suburban to very rural. and one of the things i've met with all my rural telecoms out is that if the problems with dropped calls. and this is a serious issue for folks at the because if you family members that are elderly and you're trying to call them and all of a sudden they're not picking up that phone, then your next recourse is to call the local on enforcement or the fire department to go out and check on family member. the same way it hits small businesses or any businesses out in these areas because i've a lot of businesses that are located way out. and all of a sudden the calls are getting top and you can't make that call, they lose business. pretty soon they're out of business. so as we're looking at what's happening out there as the network, especially the role providers transition to ip, how do

mr. cicconi may be. i think the delay -- i think the fcc, you know, has been a little slow, i would say, in getting these trials off the ground. so i would like to see them move quickly. and i think they would yield useful information. but i don't want to seem them used over a long time of watching the fcc. sometimes i know when you start these things like this, they can be used in ways that delay ultimately the ultimate decision making. that shouldn't be allowed to happen with the projects. what u you started out by mentioning the interconnection, i think, and the i.t. transition, and, you know, i just want to say it. and i said it in my testimony with regard to ip to ip internet connection. i don't think that and just assuming we'll have a trial or not. but matily i don't think the fcc would presume it's going regulate the interconnection agreements in the same way that it did in the tdm world. it's, you know, likely that there won't be interconnection problems. it hasn't been the case with ip to ip co

mr. cicconi hasn't said that is the right idea. i would point out with call completion that began, and the answer to that began through the states. when the problems occurred i know that you got them, congressman you said you did and i believed then you did with the fact of the matter is most of the time the public service commissioner or office probably got them first as people became unhappy with what they were getting them for not getting in rural america. hopefully keeping those regulations in place will allow for consumers to get the kind of protection that they have learned to expect in their old network as we move through to a new one. >> my time is expired. >> the gentleman yields back and the chair recognizes the gentleman from louisiana for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i appreciate you having this hearing and want to thank all the witnesses for coming and getting your perspective on the changes in technology. i am excited when you see the things that people are able to do now as we have a transition to interne

mr. cicconi is because at&t has a large legacy copper communications network and significant plans to deploy new fiber infrastructure how will the new fiber networks handle natural disasters like hurricanes? we know that the copper continue to operate but what happens now with the new fiber networks and you know dealing with that issue? how are you going to deal with them? >> there is unfortunately no ip technology congressman that allows you to power the line. you cannot put power over a fiber connection. fiber has many other advantages in addition to its internet capacity and one of them i think is relevant in a hurricane or a flood zone or a sandy type situation is that seawater will destroy copper and make it unrepairable. fiber is very resilient in that type of situation frank desoer our wireless networks. we get them up and running quickly after these storms and i say that knock on wood because we are still in hurricane system. >> again i think that we all agree that these community should not lose services they rely on simply because they are unlucky enough to be in the path of the st