IP Democracy: Franchising Debates Head Back to the States

With the telecom reform bill in Congress all but dead for this session, the telcos have resumed their battle positions to get video franchising legislation through the various state legislatures. The National Journal’s Miguel Martinez has this concise wrap-up piece on the status of various state-level bills that would grant phone companies some relief from the community-by-community contracts that they need to negotiate to offer video services.

The potential shift in power to Democrats could, however, jeopardize the telcos’ plans to get aggressive at the state level next year. Verizon is eyeing New York, Pennsylvania and possibly Massachusetts as prime candidates for new video franchising legislation.

However, (and it’s kind of odd that Martinez would cite a partisan blogger, Matt Stoller of MyDD, as his reference for this point) at this stage it looks the gubernatorial races in both states will favor the Democratic candidate. I guess I’ll give up arguing about how I don’t see a partisan angle to the video franchising issue.

Update: Over at Verizon’s PoliBlog, David Fish confirms that the telco won’t likely pursue federal reform legislation next year and will focus instead on the states.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 15, 2006 5:49 PM to IP Democracy