Tennessee lawmakers, telcos and utilities are stirred up over possibility...

1222) and the telco-backed Freedom to Connect Act (HB 567/SB 1049), both of which have strong supporters and detractors. The Tennessee Senate Commerce and Labor Committee passed the Senate version of the Watson/Matlock bill Tuesday, advancing it to the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee, with eight votes in favor with one pass. The Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association (TCTA) issued a press release last week (http://bit.ly/XdiIEb) warning of what it sees as an “unprecedented fee increase” of this Watson/Matlock bill. It would add $21 million in costs for private broadband Internet providers, TCTA argued. “This is big-government, anti-business, anti-consumer legislation that has severe consequences for Tennessee,” said TCTA Executive Director Corum Webb in a statement. But the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association (TECA) said Feb. 26 on its website “the Watson/Matlock bill is based on good-faith efforts to compromise with cable in the past.” (http://bit.ly/WKsKsH). “The bill preserves a cooperative’s authority over its own property while giving attachers a clearly defined dispute resolution process and protection against legitimate abuse.” TCTA praised the alternative Freedom to Connect Act and said it will “establish guiding policy for rates, based on actual costs, and set up independent, third-party review for situations when utilities and private companies disagree.” TECA, however, said the act would hurt rural Tennesseans and “result in increased electric bills across Tennessee.” On Tuesday, the Knoxville News Sentinel said the Freedom to Connect Act would be the better deal. The Watson/Matlock bill “supported by utilities would require the [administrative law] judge to split the roughly $100 per year annual cost of maintaining a pole equally among the users,” the editorial said. “That would mean that cable and telephone companies would pay $33.33 per pole per year, with the utility responsible for the remaining $33.33. Companies such as AT&T that own at least 300,000 of their own poles in Tennessee or another state are exempt.” The Taxpayers Protection Alliance also attacked the Watson/Matlock bill in a March 1 letter to legislators, alleging it would “would force providers to pay millions in additional pole fees, which in turn would mean phone and Internet providers would have to raise rates” (http://bit.ly/169jxAZ). Grover Norquist, president of the national group Americans for Tax Reform, bashed the Watson/Matlock bill in a similar March 1 letter to Tennessee legislators (http://bit.ly/W68Efa).