By Ron Thaniel
May 1, 2006

As approved by the United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce April 26, the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE / Barton-Rush) Bill “federalizes” local government video/cable franchising, limits the benefits of broadband-video competition to a few well-to-do neighborhoods, and undermines the ability of local governments to protect consumers and manage public rights-of-way.

A number of close but unsuccessful votes on pro-city amendments were championed by Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member John D. Dingell (MI), Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (MA), Representative Anna Eshoo (CA), Representative Hilda L. Solis (CA), Representative Tammy Baldwin (WI), and Representative Mike Doyle (PA). Following this, the Committee by a vote of 42-12 approved the draft legislation that would facilitate entry of the multinational telephone companies into the local broadband-video market without obtaining a local franchise agreement.

The bill does significant harm to consumers and cities in three significant ways:

First, the bill strips local governments of their authority to franchise the use of their rights-of-way for video/cable services and gives that authority to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington (DC).

The FCC has never had the authority to regulate local public rights-of-way and has no expertise concerning local streets, sidewalks, public safety or traffic patterns.

Second, it gives the FCC the authority to oversee and second-guess all local rights-of-way management practices and all customer service issues. Incidents occurring in local rights-of-way are public safety concerns and must be addressed immediately and locally. The bill ignores the reality that the FCC is not able to respond in a timely manner to these rights-of-way concerns.

The FCC does not have the resources to handle all customer complaints nationwide, and local governments are best situated to respond to their residents’ complaints.

Third, the bill, which is being hurried to the House Floor for a vote this week, allows providers of the broadband-video service, through the national franchise, to use the public rights-of-way in a community but pick and choose which neighborhoods they wish to serve while bypassing all others completely.

The bill would even allow broadband/video providers to avoid maintaining or upgrading facilities in poorer neighborhoods while affluent neighborhoods receive cutting-edge services and lower prices.