from: State House News Service

HOUSE CHAIRS ON MA VERIZON BILL: NOT THIS YEAR

Legislation easing regulations for telecommunications companies looking to break into cable TV markets, which has the backing of Senate Ways and Means chairman Steven Panagiotakos, is unlikely to pass this session, two House committee chairs said yesterday. Reps. Daniel Bosley, House chair of the Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, and Brian Dempsey, House chair of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, said yesterday outside a leadership meeting in House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi’s office that the bill’s prospects this year are dim. “I don’t think it’s going to be worked out this year,” Bosley said. Dempsey pointed to timing concerns expressed by Verizon and other firms looking to expand into cable and broadband as understandable, but said he doubted any quick action on that front either. Verizon claims passage of the bill will give consumers more choices and quicken the pace of broadband buildout. Critics say local licensing officials are the best consumer advocates.