On Tuesday, a committee of the Texas legislature heard invited testimony from a dozen people. They represented the likes of Sprint, Texatel, Covad and Cingular. Last week, the same committee heard from a dozen others. My testimony is here.
Two dozen witnesses to kick off the legislative process is extraordinary. There is every reason to believe that parallel efforts to re-write the state telecom statute and to re-authorize/sunset the state utility commission will continue to attract outsized attention in Texas, and around the country. (That's one reason why we are fortunate that the Texas Public Policy Foundation recently re-published a PFF study on the issue.)