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from: MultiChannel News

Stevens: Senate Will Pass Telecom Bill

By Ted Hearn
5/18/2006

Washington -- Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) predicted Thursday that his broad telecommunications bill would pass the Senate this year, even though his panel remains sharply divided on some key policies.

from: Broadcasting and Cable
The Senate Commerce Committee is working on a revised draft of its telecom reform bill and will push back a markup to June 20. The committee is also adding a third hearing on the bill June 13--the first was held Thursday, May 18, the second will be May 25.

from: CNET

Hanging up on the competition

By Martin Chavez

Like many elected officials, the nation's mayors have taken a renewed interest in telecommunications as the so-called video reform legislation, sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and urged by the nation's telephone companies, is considered in the U.S. Congress. And no wonder. The legislation will likely determine the extent to which our constituents will ever benefit from broadband competition.

South Carolina joins a number of other states where the telcos have won statewide franchises

from:Technology Daily

South Carolina Approves Bill For Statewide Video Franchises

By Michael Martinez

(Revised Wednesday, May 17) The South Carolina Legislature has cleared a measure to overhaul the state's video franchising rules.

from: Independent Weekly

MAY 17, 2006

Technobarons of the 21st century

Telephone and cable companies are trying to create a vertical monopoly. If they succeed, they'll destroy the free market, along with everything else we love about the Internet.

BY FIONA MORGAN

John D. Rockefeller realized that the way to control the oil market was to control the transport of oil. So in 1871, he colluded with the railroad industry to form a cartel called the South Improvement Company. The rate to ship oil doubled, but Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company would get rebates for every gallon of oil shipped, even those shipped by his competitors. South would also collect information on the destinations, costs and dates of competitors' oil shipments.

from: Technology Daily

Telecom Sector Donates To Senate Commerce Chairman

By David Hatch

(Friday, May 12) Telecommunications, media and Internet conglomerates seeking regulatory relief from the Senate Commerce Committee are giving generously to the campaign coffers of panel Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

from:The Black Commentator

The Black Stake in the Internet
By Bruce Dixon, The Black Commentator
Posted on May 17, 2006

America's black misleadership class, which is nearly indistinguishable from its black business class, has struck again. In a stunning coup, a mainline African-American voting rights group has been enlisted on the side of AT&T and other telecom monopolies in their legislative push to privatize the internet and roll back hundreds of agreements with local communities that force these monopolies to extend internet and cable service to poor and rural communities around the country.

from: In These Times
Views May 16, 2006

Information Highway Robbers
By Joel Bleifuss

Mike McCurry, the former press secretary for President Bill Clinton is not amused at the 'net neuts.'

What makes the Internet revolutionary is that it is democratic, open to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. That could soon change.

from: National Journal

Technology Daily

Senate Judiciary Panel Eyes Telecom Proposal

By Sarah Lai Stirland

(Wednesday, May 10) The Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to seek a role in reshaping telecommunications law, according to a committee aide.

At least three panel members are concerned about some of the issues addressed in the telecommunications bill crafted by Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and unveiled last week, the aide said.

Great news from the local scene!
from: MultiChannel News

Local Franchises Get Local Support

By Kent Gibbons
5/15/2006

New York— The nation’s biggest phone companies have excellent lobbyists in Washington, working hard to see to it that their clients don’t have to go city by city, across the country, negotiating entry into the video business the way cable companies had to do it.