Local Officials Push Hill for Say in Telecom Rewrite
As many as 20 elected local govt. officials Wed. began lobbying key members of the House and Senate Commerce Committees, urging Congress to “recognize the importance of local franchising authority.” More than 50 meetings with members of Congress and staff have been set, said Arvada (Colo.) Mayor Ken Fellman, who chairs the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Information & Technology Communications Committee.
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Cities are willing to consider streamlining the franchising process, Fellman said in a conference call for reporters. But local govts. must be involved in any telecom law rewrite, he said: “It’s crucial that we have a seat at the table.” NATOA Pres. Coralie Wilson said the NATOA annual conference starting today (Thurs.) in Washington will let local telecom regulators meet congressional representatives to “express our concerns and interests on the telecom rewrite legislation.”
Impending legislation will affect cities’ ability to attract business and ensure competition and fair prices for services, said Fellman. It’s possible to simplify local franchising, but “it’s absolutely crucial that local governments have a continuing role in franchising in one form or other,” he said. Local control of public rights- of-way and compensation for its private use are “absolutely essential,” he said. Local govts. also should have authority to enforce local and federal rules to “protect” consumers, he said. The FCC may adopt technical standards for cable systems, he said, but they're enforced at the local level. So are customer service standards, he added.
Discussions continue among local govt. organizations on streamlining the franchising process, Fellman said. He said he believes personally that discussion of public, educational and govt. (PEG) access channels and financial support usually slow the franchising process. Devising “across-the board standards” for PEG capacity and funding and obviating the need for negotiations on that issue would speed the process, he said: “There are some benefits of federalizing some of these issues and narrowing the issues that get negotiated.”
House Commerce Committee staff had at least 3 meetings with local govt. representatives, including NLC, NATOA, U.S. Conference of Mayors and National Assn. of Counties before putting out a draft telecom rewrite bill, Fellman said. The draft bill addresses “every one of the issues that we think are important to be addressed,” he said. It deals with municipal provisioning of broadband services, which cities support, he said. However, some franchising provisions “are not to our liking and we will try to get those modified.” He said the bill includes national customer service standards and privacy issues. “Privacy standards are pretty robust in the draft.” But the concern is lack of “adequate” provision for enforcement, he said. “If you leave enforcement to either the state commissions or the FCC, and take local governments out of it, it’s going to make it really hard for consumers to have their concerns adequately addressed,” Fellman said.
Cities have a “lot of problems” with the McCain- Ensign bill, because it doesn’t address many issues concerning local govts., Fellman said. HR-3146 and S- 1349, both limited bills dealing merely with video franchising, don’t recognize a local role even in a streamlined franchising process, he said. Many elements in the bills likely will be worked into comprehensive telecom bills, he said. Discussions with Senate Commerce Committee staff indicated Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) is likely soon to produce a Senate version co-sponsored by Inouye (D-Hawaii), he said.
Local govts. also will press Congress to legislate return of radio frequency spectrum to public safety communications. That’s a pressing need, he said: “We have been arguing for this since the Oklahoma City bombings.” The post-Katrina communications mess underscored the need to improve public safety communications by returning more spectrum to local govts., he added.