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from: Chicago Sun-Times

FCC makes wrong call for consumers

January 3, 2007

The recent FCC ruling, ''Path clears for competition in cable market'' [news story, Dec. 21], represents another salvo in the telephone industry's attempts to gain control of the video market. With cable prices on the rise, the nation's telephone companies claim to offer increased competition and lower prices. They convinced the Federal Communications Commission (three Republicans, two Democrats), which by a partisan 3-2 vote flipped telecommunications reform on its head and ensured that the public will bear the burden.

In its two years of deliberating over pending telecom legislation, both House and Senate bills have included support for public, educational and governmental (PEG Access) facilities that provide a resource to thousands of com- munities around the country. In contrast, the FCC ruling will result in substantial funding cuts to PEG centers, effectively rolling back more than two decades of history under existing laws. In the FCC's hands, CAN TV in Chicago and other access centers dedicated to the public are headed toward extinction.

CAN TV was formed as part of local franchise negotiations between the City of Chicago and cable companies to meet the public's needs. The FCC ruling sacrifices meaningful negotiations by instituting a 90-day period for a city to act on franchise applications, creating a disincentive for the phone industry to act in good faith. The industry can simply wait out the clock and it is automatically granted a temporary franchise.

The phone industry got its special Christmas wish to get a license to deploy its system based on profit, not parity. The result will put the phone giants on a fast track to profits while all but their self-defined ''high-end'' customers will be left in the slow lane or without service altogether.

Adding insult to injury, the FCC proposes to extend this ruling to all video service providers once they renew their franchises. Rather than holding companies accountable on a level playing field, the FCC lowers the regulatory bar, cuts public benefits and starts the descent down a slippery slope.

The FCC's stealth move leaves us shaking our heads in disbelief. How is it that three out of five appointed members of the FCC have the power to usurp the authority of 485 elected members of Congress?

Peter Skosey, board chairman, CAN TV Chicago