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from: Media Week

Telecom Bill May Be Disconnected

Todd Shields

SEPTEMBER 04, 2006 -

Lawmakers returning to Washington this week will be greeted by telephone company lobbyists engaged in a final, uphill push for help in emerging as cable’s competitors.

Verizon and AT&T want final passage of a bill that would let federal officials rather than localities set guidelines for offering video services. Telephone executives say kowtowing to thousands of localities is a barrier to rolling out TV services that offer hundreds of channels over high-speed lines. Cities and counties are fighting the measure, saying it saps their power to protect constituents and rights-of-way.

The bill has prevailed in several votes and now needs an OK from the full Senate to clear Congress. But opponents have the calendar working for them. Lawmakers return to work Sept. 5 and adjourn by early October for the fall election campaign. The intervening weeks are likely to be jammed with routine appropriations and debate on national security.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the bill’s main sponsor, said in July he believes he has the votes needed to prevail. Other vote-counters say he is falling well short. Even if Stevens finds his votes, he has yet to secure a pledge from Senate leaders for the floor time needed for the full body to consider the bill. Still, said a Republican aide on the Senate Commerce Committee that Stevens chairs, “We are 100 percent behind this bill. We want to see it passed this year.” Congress could pass some version of the bill during a lame-duck session following the election.

The bill is weighed down by debate over Net neutrality, or whether companies that own high-speed data lines should be forbidden to offer better, quicker service to video, data or voice providers they prefer (or that pay for such a privilege). Those who would forbid such favorable treatment lost in four preliminary votes. Now they claim to be gaining enough adherents to succeed. One early supporter, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has asserted his privilege to block any vote on the measure.

Failure on Capitol Hill will not mean failure everywhere. Last week California’s legislature voted to let video providers largely bypass localities, becoming the eighth state to recently offer such relief. And the Federal Communications Commission is studying what role it can play in speeding new video services. Its likely leanings are clear. “The continued deployment of broadband at affordable prices for consumers remains my top priority,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said last week.