from: Nashville Post [1]
AT&T Round 3: Franchise reform gets new House leader
12-04-2007 10:19 AM —
UPDATED 6:15 P.M. - Sen. Bill Ketron confirmed by mid-afternoon he will be carrying the franchise bill in the Senate, in 2008.
As originally reported:
State Rep. Steve McDaniel (R-Parkers Crossroads) told NashvillePost.com this morning he plans to lead the third attempt to enact statewide video franchising in the General Assembly, when it convenes in January.
Also this morning, AT&T Tennessee President Gregg Morton told NashvillePost.com that Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) will, once again, be the bill's champion in the Senate. Ketron has not yet returned a NashvillePost.com phone call.
Morton told a business audience gathered at Lipscomb University this morning that if franchise reform fails again in the General Assembly, capital investment that AT&T would make in Tennessee to support the launch of its U-verse video services would go to other states.
That message was consistent with Morton's campaign platform, as previously reported by NashvillePost.com.
In fact, Morton and other AT&T executives have been out on the hustings for months, appearing before audiences in numerous Tennessee hamlets and cities.
They have often told locals that points of contention in the previous reform legislation — including discrimination, build-out, bonding, fees and other sticking-points — have essentially been resolved.
Responding to an audience question at Lipscomb this morning, Morton said AT&T supports language that prohibits discrimination or "red-lining" of neighborhoods.
He then explained that "it would be bad business for us" to discriminate by withholding buildout in lower-income communities, because AT&T believes households with low disposable income and fewer entertainment options are, in fact, great video customers. Similarly, Morton said AT&T plans to offer equal-or-better public-access television services, compared with access-TV now provided by cable companies.
During his remarks, however, Morton did acknowledge that if legislation passes with a mandate for full build-out in each community entered, that would kill the business case for AT&T.
Reached for comment, Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association spokesman Joe Hall told NashvillePost.com this morning, "AT&T is saying that all the problems have been fixed, but there's no new bill. We're still working off the old bill that had majority opposition. They couldn't pass it because there were so many groups opposed to it.... You cannot get around the fact that the consumer protection, the local government protection in the bill, as it currently exists, would be stripped — they've not been fixed."
TCTA President Stacey Briggs told NashvillePost.com this morning that major issues remain unresolved. She said that, even from her vantage as an opponent, build-out provisions contained in the final Senate version of the bill before debate was terminated contained build-out provisions that could only appear "onerous" or "daunting" in the eyes of AT&T.
McDaniel told NashvillePost.com this morning that he believes pro-reform educational efforts now underway will result in broad support among the Tennessee cities' mayors.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Charles Curtiss (D-Sparta) was the lead sponsor for the bill during the previous hard-fought battle, but ultimately had to let the effort die. He told NashvillePost.com in September that he had been "let down" by AT&T and would not lead the charge, next time. He said then, however, he would like to see the bill in his committee, again.