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from: Nashville City Paper

Rural lawmakers want AT&T bill to expand broadband to their areas

By John Rodgers
April 16, 2007

State lawmakers from rural areas say that a major bill backed by AT&T to get the company into the television business needs to include provisions to expand broadband Internet into rural parts of the state as well.

AT&T is heavily pushing for a bill to allow them to obtain a statewide television franchise to offer “video services” through their existing phone lines and compete with cable television.

Currently, cable franchises can only be obtained at the local level, such as Comcast’s in Davidson County. The cable industry and local governments are opposing AT&T’s efforts.

Rep. Mark Maddox (D-Dresden), who chairs the state’s Broadband Task Force, said some provisions in the AT&T-backed bill need to be aimed at providing broadband “to every citizen.”

“I think that’s necessary,” Maddox said. “We have to have some agreement. These are the folks that provide broadband access, both AT&T and the cable companies, and we need to see some provision for that to happen in rural areas as well as urban areas.”

Rural areas have not had as much broadband availability because of their location and the distances between homes. The state’s Broadband Task Force reported in January that just one in four Tennessee homes has broadband, ranking the state No. 37 in the United States.

Lawmakers say not having broadband hurts the quality of education for children, economic development as well as healthcare.

But resulting from its Federal Communications Commission-approved merger with BellSouth in late 2006, AT&T says it will expand broadband access to the entire AT&T, BellSouth area by the end of 2007.

Ted Wagnon, a spokesman for AT&T, said the company is planning to do just that in its 22-state footprint.

“Our intent is to provide broadband access to every customer and to every household that we pass in the service area by the end of the year,” Wagnon said.

Lawmakers said they weren’t sure what quality of broadband AT&T would deploy as a result of the merger with BellSouth.

Wagnon said AT&T plans to offer DSL broadband to 85 percent of its customers throughout the country and offer “other technologies” like satellite or wireless broadband service to the remaining 15 percent.

Despite that, Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley), the chairman of the House Finance, Ways & Means Committee, said that rural lawmakers would have “no leverage” if the AT&T-backed bill passed without rural broadband being addressed.

From AT&T’s perspective, Wagnon said he doesn’t see how addressing rural broadband deployment in the AT&T bill regarding video services is needed.

“I don’t see how it’s necessary — 100 percent is 100 percent, ya know,” Wagnon said.

Rep. Randy Rinks (D-Savannah) compared expanding broadband availability to rural areas was as important as getting electricity in the 1930s.

“It’s not happening now and I can’t see it happening under the current situation we’re under, unless we can provide some form of competition whether it’d be at the local or state level,” Rinks said. “But what we’re doing now ain’t getting it out there.”

Right now though, the AT&T bill is not making much progress. The chairmen of the House and Senate Commerce Committees tried to push the cable industry, local government groups and AT&T to the negotiating table earlier last week.

But instead of meeting in person, AT&T, the cable industry and local government organizations are supposed to submit their written concerns and solutions about what they want in a bill that would allow AT&T to obtain a statewide television franchise, said one of the measure’s sponsors, House Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Charles Curtiss (D-Sparta).

Sen. Steve Southerland (R-Morristown), the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the parties involved may meet in person after their proposals are submitted.

“They just haven’t done that yet,” Southerland said. “I think this might start the ball rolling.”