Cable Choice and Competition Act

[Aaron Read]

That's essentially correct, John...but the problem is that if this act 
passes, it will largely remove what little leverage local towns have 
over their cable provider to provide things like local access funds, 
carrying specific channels, providing regular maintenance, etc etc etc.

All that stuff will be moved to up the state level, where it's much 
easier to ignore.

I recommend reading up at Dan Kennedy's Media Nation blog, he's got a 
good summary there.

http://medianation.blogspot.com/search/label/local%20access

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Aaron Read
readaaron@friedbagels.com
Boston, MA 02446-2204



I believe that it is a law that, if passed, would remove the cities'
and towns' right to award cable franchises to one company (or two, in
the areas where both Comcast and RCN both have them).

This is an issue because Verizon wants to get FIOS into more areas,
but many towns are requiring them to go through the same process the
cable companies do to get a franchise.  This is delaying FIOS rollout
significantly, apparently.

Verizon would MUCH rather deal with a single state-wide protocol
and/or authority to get permission to build-out FIOS than being
required to deal with 351 different authorizing bodies.
John