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from: DSL Reports

Cities Say FCC Dishonest About Franchise Issues
Tampa : FCC claims 'complete and abject fiction'
Posted 2007-01-29 by Karl

The FCC voted along partisan lines 3-2 last December to streamline TV franchise rules at the request of the baby bells in order to aid TelcoTV efforts. Some localities say that the FCC and telco lobbyists demonized the existing franchise system to get that vote through and, in some cases, made up stories entirely. Tampa officials are annoyed after the FCC inaccurately claimed they were forcing Verizon to film math tutoring classes in order to get a video franchise. Democratic Commissioner Adelstein has accused FCC chief Kevin Martin of taking telco claims at face value without any independent fact checking.

The FCC hopes that by streamlining the video franchise system they can speed up competition in the TV sector. Consumer advocates, however, note that speed isn't the issue. While local franchise negotiations can be choppy when towns or cities get greedy, Verizon has admitted the existing process hasn't really slowed down FiOS TV deployment. The telcos are more interested in streamlining the lobbying process and eliminating the build-out requirements frequently seen in local franchise negotiations. The end result may be TV competition, but only in select, profitable neighborhoods.