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from: Citizen Tribune

AT&T still trying to get connected

House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh took offense at Gov. Phil Bredesen’s recent criticism of his attempt to broker a cable bill in the Legislature by forcing a back-room compromise between Tennessee’s existing cable industry and AT&T, which is trying — for the second year — to break into the broadband cable and Internet market in Tennessee.

Naifeh owes the governor an apology: Gov. Bredesen’s criticism is on target. It is past time, as the governor said, "to consider what Tennesseans want."

Speaker Naifeh and the Legislature should not be spinning their wheels refereeing a fight between the cable industry and another potentially huge service provider. They should be taking an independent leadership role in fostering the expansion of broadband services in Tennessee.

What’s going on in Speaker Naifeh’s closed sessions with Tennessee’s existing cable industry leaders and AT&T officials is, in a word, ludicrous. AT&T wants a statewide licensing system so it can jump into the Tennessee broadband market right away, and it deserves that. The Tennessee cable industry, largely run by Comcast, wants to keep such a potentially huge competitor on the sidelines as long as it can.

Tennessee, and the United States generally, also rank exceptionally low in broadband download speed. That’s mainly because big cable providers commonly shortchange investment in infrastructure to report higher profits to shareholders. They may do so because they often have monopolies, or virtual monopolies, and thus are not compelled by competition to lower their prices or to upgrade their fiber-optic cable to provide the far-higher speeds and service capacity found in elsewhere in the industrialized world.

Tennessee has a compelling interest in making high-speed broadband more widely available, and the Legislature should facilitate that. AT&T is seeking a statewide franchise license to break into the market with economies of scale. It doesn’t want, and should not be required, to seek a franchise from individual cities and county governments, as is now required under rules fixed decades ago when Comcast was the sole cable provider.

If it takes Gov. Bredesen’s participation to develop a fair and comprehensive bill, the governor should jump in. If Speaker Naifeh’s tender, protective feelings about his back-room discussions with the cable industry’s lobbyists get bruised, it’s about time.

Chattanooga Times, Feb. 12