Tuesday, April 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Vice President Al Gore said today in Las Vegas that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the most important legislation of its kind in half a century, because it provides consumers with more variety at a lower cost.
Addressing the Television Bureau of Advertising's annual marketing conference at the Las Vegas Hilton, Gore thanked those present for "helping America chart a new and future course."
"Trying to reform telecommunication law was a little like being stuck in that movie 'Groundhog Day,'" Gore said. "For 20 years we tried, and every year we fell into a pothole or smashed into an obstacle. What a difference a year makes, and what a difference President Clinton's leadership makes."
Gore's speech was attended by about 900 people in one ballroom and a few hundred others in an overflow room.
Gore touched on the history of television and said advances in technology have opened doors to immense competition from cable companies and other outlets that should be allowed to flourish in a free-market system, which will result in more choices for consumers at a lower cost.
"Today, this landscape has been rocked by seismic shifts in technology, " Gore said. "Walk into any living room in America, and you will see a cornucopia of entertainment unimaginable to people in the 1950s."
Other advances, including high-definition television, should provide even greater options and service for consumers, he said.
"President Clinton and I know that television stations will spend billions of dollars converting to digital television," Gore said. "Everyone benefits from a steady conversion of free TV to digital technology."
The Telecommunications Act, signed by Clinton in February, revamps 60-year-old laws by allowing long-distance phone and cable companies to compete in each other's businesses. Cable rates also are to be deregulated, and media companies will be able to expand more easily.
The act also outlaws transmission of sexually explicit materials to minors via computer and gives parents access to a new computer chip -- the so-called V-chip -- to help regulate shows their children watch on television.
Critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, argue that a provision banning "indecent speech" on computer networks is a form of censorship.
The speech was Gore's only scheduled stop in Las Vegas. He flew in and out of McCarran International Airport aboard Air Force Two.
His stopover is the first this year by the Democratic presidential ticket. Gore's last visit was in July, when he addressed a gathering of the Disabled American Veterans, also at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole and his wife, Elizabeth, visited Las Vegas during separate trips last month.
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