Fiber-friendly bill

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/5/2001

Bills that give tax cuts to companies that provide high-speed Internet service to underserved areas may actually provide major incentive to equipment makers. After Sen. John J. Rockefeller IV (D-W. Va.) introduced such a bill last year, New York-based Corning Glass got then-Sen. Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) to add a provision that gave an even bigger tax credit to companies providing super-fast broadband services. For such services, companies need to buy and lay fiber-optic cable (like that made by Corning Glass). Should Rockefeller's reintroduction of the tax-cut bill pass (see page 39), Corning would be sitting pretty because while the bill doesn't cover the infrastructure costs of launching a satellite or laying cable for an Internet backbone, it does help recoup costs of bringing fiber that "last mile" to the home.

Corning seems to be getting its ducks in a row. Last November Corning Chairman and CEO Roger Ackerman wrote an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe backing the Rockefeller bill, and Stan Fendley, formerly one of Moynihan's tax counsels, has joined Corning's Washington office.