Real estate industry sources said Sen. Kohl (D-Wis.) has backed o...
Real estate industry sources said Sen. Kohl (D-Wis.) has backed off from comments on “sweetheart deals” allegedly made by landlords and telcos that restrict access by potential competitors to multitenant dwellings. Kohl raised ire of property owners in Senate…
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Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing (CD May 3 p1) when he questioned whether Congress should fine-tune Telecom Act to address issue of building access. Real estate interests said they met with Kohl staffers in wake of hearing, which Subcommittee Chmn. DeWine (R-O.) had held to assess progress of competition since passage of 1996 Act. Industry sources said staffers gave assurances that Kohl’s sole intention at hearing was to elicit input from telecom industry panelists on how Congress could protect residential and commercial tenants and remove stumbling block to competition. Kohl has no intention of introducing legislation to govern building access despite urging of CLEC and IXC executives for nationwide building access legislation, real estate sources said. They said legislative action was unnecessary because: (1) FCC regulations already prohibit exclusive contracts between landlords and carriers. (2) There’s no evidence of widespread restrictive contracts. Advocates say legislative remedy is needed to: (1) Preempt disparate state regulations. (2) Bolster FCC rules, which they said lacked sufficient enforcement mechanism to deter building owners from denying or delaying access to buildings. Kohl aide confirmed that staff met with real estate industry interests, but declined comment.