Sen. Ensign (R-Nev.) told the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Ve...

deployment and product innovation, “we need to be very careful that we do not pass laws that will unintentionally prohibit or discourage the next great innovation” now being developed “in the lab or in someone’s garage,” said Ensign, a Senate Commerce Committee member. “While many times we need to block legislation harmful to the technology industry,” legislation is urgently needed on “modernization” of U.S. communications laws, he said. Ensign said broadband legislation he introduced last summer would “get government out of the way of trying to micromanage competition in the communications marketplace. Instead, it will let consumers pick who the winners and losers are. It is totally unacceptable that the country that invented the Internet has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband deployment.” Modernizing the communications laws will help speed the entry of telephony firms into video delivery, which is “a critical step to spur the investment in broadband networks,” he said. Freeing the analog spectrum in the DTV transition “also is important for innovation, for it will allow the exciting new uses of spectrum, many of which will be developed by entrepreneurs,” he said.