Save Access

from: Boston Globe

Lack of local cable access causes static for Verizon

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff
May 27, 2007

Marlborough residents who subscribe to Verizon for cable television service can get hundreds of channels beamed in from around the world, but if they want to watch local cable-access shows, they're out of luck. At least for now.

from: Houston Chronicle

May 24, 2007, 8:44PM
A crisis at public access TV
By LISA FALKENBERG

Half-hour from downtown, turtles float, alligators sun and birds bathe in Armand Bayou.

Houston has the most successful Crime Stoppers in the world, helping solve 1,152 cases last year.

from: MetroWest Daily News

FiOS leaves public access out of the loop
By Galen Moore/ Daily News staff

Fri May 25, 2007, 12:32 AM EDT

The red-shirted Verizon salesman has been spotted in Marlborough, and soon may be knocking on doors Southborough. The new FiOS fiber-optic cable he is selling comes with high-definition channels and high-speed Internet, but not local public-access channels.

from: MultiChanne News

FiOS Hits Houston, But Without TV

(Multichannel News) _ Verizon Communications Friday will begin to push fiber-optic FiOS service to residents in the Houston area, but for now, the telco is offering Internet and voice services around the Bayou City, not video.

from: Cambridge Community Television

Top 10 Reasons To Oppose the Verizon Bill

Massachusetts Senate Bill No. 1975, House Bill No. 3385
Read the bill here

1
The bill eliminates the power of LOCAL governments to negotiate cable franchises. negotiating power from the local to the state level. They are very mistaken. Read on to see why.

from: Eldo Telecom

Thursday, May 17, 2007
Protecting the telco/cable duopoly

This story out of New York state shows that telcos (in this case, Verizon) can offer broadband-based Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) in without legislation the telcos are seeking in the Empire State to put the state in charge of issuing so-called "video franchises" In this case, Multichannel News reports, the towns of West Haverstraw and North Castle Verizon's applications to provide IPTV over its propriety fiber optic FiOS infrastructure.

from: NY Sun

Slow Going on Push for Fast Internet Service

BY JILL GARDINER - Staff Reporter of the Sun
May 18, 2007

New Yorkers who are anxiously awaiting the day when they can switch cable television providers and sign up for new super-high-speed Internet service will need to sit tight.

While the city is now in the "final stages" of negotiations with the telecommunications giant Verizon over a cable franchise that would break up the Time Warner and Cablevision duopoly, it could take years before the majority of New York City residents can get Verizon's new FiOS fiber-optic network in their homes.

This week word came that the Grand Rapids Media Center (GRMC) is being forced to reduce operating hours, a casualty of the Michigan State Video Franchise passed last year.

from: The Albany Project

All Together Now: Pass and Sign the Telecom Reform Act

by: Pete Sikora
Tue May 15, 2007 at 07:36:11 AM EDT

Or is it altogether now? Whatever. The point is that today at 11:30am the groups supporting the bill are standing together to call on the State Legislature and the Governor to move the Brodsky/Leibell Telecommunications Reform Act (A.3980B/S.5124).

from: Blandin on Broadband

Rural New England is Getting Redlined

Redlining has been an issue that has emerged in the Statewide Cable Franchising hearings (mentioned earlier in this blog). According to The Nation (Broadband Redlining Targets Rural America) rural areas are right to be concerned about redlining. They recently featured a story on Verizon and their plan to sell off (some might say sell out) “low-value” landline customers to focus on FiOS, Verizon’s branded FTTH service.