Save Access

From: The Beacon News

Whose channel is it anyway?
Towns, feds fight to control communications providers

By Heather Gillers
Staff Writer

Fox Valley towns are criticizing a proposed federal law that would transfer some of their power over cable television providers to Washington, D.C.

"Basically, (federal officials) are getting in our soup," said John Wyeth, city attorney for Yorkville, which this week approved a statement condemning the proposed law.

Under the Communications Opportunity Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act, the federal government would gain the authority to regulate providers, a power that now belongs to individual towns.

Municipal officials would lose the ability to bargain over some conditions of cable contracts, including funding for community-access television.

The bill drew opposition from every Illinois town contacted by the legislative committee of the Metro West Councils of Governments, said Mary McKittrick, the committee's chairman and Geneva's assistant city administrator. The Metro West group is a coalition of elected officials, including many from the Fox Valley. An affiliated group, the Chicago Area's Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, created a special telecommunications task force to fight the bill.

Supporters tout competition

New technology has paved the way for Congress to reconsider communications law. As communications providers seek to offer cable channels via the Internet, the COPE Act would give those providers speedier access to local markets, said a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who plans to call the bill for a vote in the House next month. A separate version is under consideration in the Senate.
As Hastert sees it, more choices of cable providers will increase competition and drive down prices, said Brad Hahn, a spokesman for the Yorkville Republican. Comcast is the sole provider in most Chicago-area towns.

Under existing law, a communications provider seeking to set up an Internet-based cable network "would have to go to every county or city government and get an approval to develop this network, to lay the bigger, fatter broadband pipes or whatever," said Terry Lane, spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which approved the bill.

"We don't want competition to take 10 years," Lane said.

Indeed, area officials say traditional cable took 20 years to penetrate Illinois markets.

Moreover, Hahn argued, competition could actually help towns expand community-access programming. Residents who enjoy the programs will opt for communications providers that show and support them, he said. So while town governments would no longer be empowered to bargain for increased funding, providers might offer the support voluntarily in order to gain a competitive edge.

Public program loss feared

But it's not clear competition alone would produce some of the arrangements area towns have been able to hash out with cable providers in the past.

"They might have negotiated something like a studio in the community that can be used for public-access (programs)," said Rick Curneal of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference.

"They might have negotiated some sort of institutional network where they use the cable fiber optics to connect the police station with the fire building and City Hall."

The COPE Act would cap the portion of revenues providers must allot to community-access television at 1 percent, less than the cost of either of those arrangements.

"You're limiting local municipalities' ability to bargain in what they feel is their and their citizens best interests," said Yorkville Mayor Art Prochaska. "Who knows better about the local area?"

Compromise possible

Towns' struggles to retain control of communications franchises reaches beyond the COPE Act controversy. Efforts by Geneva and North Aurora to stall AT&T's "Project Lightspeed" stem from the towns' desire to address locally the company's bid for integrated broadband and cable access.

But neither local nor federal officials — nor communications providers likely to benefit from the act — have entirely dug their heals in.

Congress likely will modify the bill as it seeks to reconcile the Senate and House versions. Meanwhile, Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Director David Bennett said area towns may consider negotiating as a group with communications providers. A joint agreement would give local governments a say but circumvent town-by-town negotiations.

05/27/06