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from: Beacon News

Video bill deal eases most of local concerns

June 1, 2007
BY STEVE LORD Staff Writer

A last-minute compromise forged a video service bill in the Illinois General Assembly that local officials are still unhappy with -- but not as much as they were.

The battle between local municipal officials and AT&T over House Bill 1500 came to a head during the past two days, with last-minute wrangling resulting in a compromise passing the Senate and expected to pass the House late Thursday.

"It was the best alternative we could come up with," said Terry Miller, a senior assistant city attorney for the city of Naperville. He worked on the bill for several municipal organizations, including the Illinois Municipal League.

"I would ask anyone, look at the original HB 1500, and this (final bill)," he said. "Which would you prefer? This is a dramatic improvement. ... This is the best statewide franchise bill yet."

As late as Wednesday, it appeared HB 1500 was dead. But last-minute wrangling involving the speaker of the house and Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office took some provisions of HB 1500 and turned them into amendments to Senate Bill 678. It was that Senate bill which eventually passed.

While municipal officials still are unhappy with statewide regulation, some local regulation was kept alive to mollify local officials.

Pending the last-minute House approval, municipalities and counties still will have control over where any infrastructure is built in local rights-of-way. The amended bill removes any power of eminent domain for video providers.

The bill includes customer service regulations that are stricter than any ever put into any kind of franchise agreement.

In three pages, the new regulations spell out minute details of customer service, such as how long a company can take to answer the phone.

Those regulations not only apply to new providers, such as AT&T and its Project Lightspeed, but to existing cable providers, such as Comcast.

One provision of the bill that local officials do not like is that it would allow AT&T the option of only serving selected parts of communities, while cable providers still would be required to serve the whole community.

"It still allows them to pick and choose where not to serve," said Peter Collins, information technologies manager for the city of Geneva.

The bill also keeps alive the 5 percent franchise fees for local government.