Regulators Worry Franchising Will Slow IP Video
CHICAGO - Federal and state regulators said Wed. they sympathize with concerns about local franchising requirements impeding video competition but doubt the FCC has authority to preempt them. On a panel at the Supercomm show here, FCC Comrs. Abernathy and Adelstein and Cal. PUC regulator Susan Kennedy, considered a maverick who favors federal preemption on some issues, said Congress or state legislatures are better positioned to take such action.
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Concern about local franchising processes stalling rollout of IP-based video competition offered by companies such as Verizon and SBC came up often during speeches and panels at the show. FCC Chmn. Martin expressed hope Tues. that franchising won’t become a barrier to telephone company-provided IP video that could be “exciting for consumers” because it would offer new types of service and packages. Industry speakers also raised the matter on several panels and in speeches.
Comr. Adelstein said phone companies’ entry into video is “thrilling” and he wants to encourage it, but the FCC’s authority may be limited in preempting local franchising laws. “I don’t think there’s a lot we can do,” Comr. Abernathy said. She said she hasn’t heard any legal approach “that lets us take franchising away.”
Kennedy called franchising “the single biggest barrier to opening investment in new technology.” She asked if there isn’t a way to rein in local franchising through ties to federal funding, such as Rural Utilities Service (RUS) grants or universal service funding -- perhaps by cutting off money “if a state does not have the mechanism to enforce a law against jacking up franchise fees or rights of way [requirements].” Abernathy said she doubts that would work under the laws that set up those programs. For example, USF funding is tied to high-cost areas.
Asked to name one issue they would tackle to diminish barriers to IP rollout, Adelstein and Abernathy cited classification of services, pending at the U.S. Supreme Court in the Brand X case. Said Abernathy: “We have a statute that differentiates between telecommunications service and information service. No other country has [such a law]. It is an historic anomaly.” Abernathy also urged completion of the intercarrier compensation and universal service fund contributions proceedings, which “go back to the design of compensation systems based on how the world used to look.”
“If Congress does nothing else this year on telecom reform it should end the debate over jurisdiction by walling off IP services from economic regulation regardless of who provides it,” said Kennedy. - Edie Herman