Archive for: July 2007

It’s taken a little more than a year, but the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut has just reversed and corrected an earlier Connecticut Public Utility Control Order.

BloggingBROADBAND reported on the goofy Connecticut PUC Order back on May 8, 2006. At the time, I noted that the PUC was being blinded by AT&T’s promise to deliver cable competition, and that the Commission appeared willing to ride roughshod through existing law to get to its pre-determined conclusion.

Continue Reading…

It has been a little more than six months since Michigan’s state legislators passed 2006 PA 480, the “Uniform Video Services Local Franchising Act.” The purpose of the new law was to streamline the video franchising process so more competition in cable services could develop. Traditionally, a video provider would have to negotiate with a local government for a franchise which would authorize the company to provide video service to the community’s residents. AT&T and other large phone companies claimed that negotiations with each local government were too time consuming and would hamper the rollout of competitive services. So Michigan’s state legislators gave AT&T what it was after: A process that allows the company to walk into any city hall and get a video franchise within 30 days, without any negotiation.

So now that this new process has been in place for better than six months, has it worked as state legislators intended? Let’s test how the law has worked for you, by asking questions only you can answer. Continue Reading…

Congratulations to the Houghton Lake Resorter newspaper and reporter Cheryl Hollander for tackling the big issue of Michigan’s new video franchising law. The article, entitled New Cable Law Results in Higher Bills, Confusion was published by that paper on July 12th. The full article is now available to subscribers of the paper, and will be offered to everyone beginning August 12. At that time, you can access the article here. Ms. Hollander called me for background on Michigan’s new law. I was happy to assist her, and appreciate the balanced approach she took on her story.

As just mentioned, the full article won’t be available online until August 12th — but it would still be worth downloading at that time. Among other things, Continue Reading…