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Note: This raises serious concerns for private citizens using telephone company services - phone, data and video. Telco Triple Play is now a triple wiretap opportunity with no legal privacy protections.

from: Ars Technica

Bush administration proposes retroactive immunity for phone companies

By Nate Anderson
| Published: May 04, 2007 - 01:33PM CT

from: Multichannel News

Franchise Bills Dominate State Debates
But Cable Groups Target VoIP Rules, Pole Fees Too

By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 4/30/2007

For the second consecutive year, franchise-reform bills continue to nearly monopolize the time and lobbying muscle of the state cable trade associations. But a few of those groups are also trying to be proactive, addressing such problems as the soaring pole-attachment rates charged by in-state telephone providers.

from: Representative Susan Lynn

Build-out is a Deal Breaker

Representative Susan Lynn
Sunday, April 22, 2007

Of all the issues large and small one matter seems to be a deal breaker in the question of whether we will have competition among television service providers. Build-out, or forcing a company to build-out service to unprofitable areas, is a point so contentious that inclusion may make or break the future of the bill currently before the Tennessee legislature.

from: Gainseville.com

Cable, phone companies spar over regulatory system

LLOYD DUNKELBERGER

Sun Tallahassee Bureau
April 21. 2007 6:01AM

TALLAHASSEE - Cable companies are using the television airwaves to lobby against a bill that would make it easy for phone companies to compete in the cable market.

from: TCTA Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Stacey Briggs (615) 585-6645
or Joe Hall Hall Strategies (615) 242-8856

April 16, 2007 Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association (TCTA)

from: Tallahassee.com

Bill would close loopholes for cable competition

By Walter Dartland
Originally published April 14, 2007

As consumer issues go, bringing competition and choice to cable is a goal that has been long in coming. Across the board, consumer groups have fought for years to give cable customers additional options. Unfortunately, the telecom industry has marshaled its considerable resources to hijack our hard work on cable choice to force through anti-consumer legislation under the false mantle of competition.

from: Cup of Joe

Phone Company Wants It All, Promises Nothing

Monday, April 09, 2007

The lobbyist-sponsored cable franchise bill is bad for everyone and would be a massive benefit to only one group - the phone company. Hollow promises and the elimination of local control of land rights likewise benefits only the phone company. A bill which would negate all local control, HB1421/SB1933 is up for review again in committee meetings in the Senate and House and simply needs to be rejected, not delayed or deferred or handed off to a 'study group'.

from: My DD

Big Telecom Screws CWA, Everyone Else

by Matt Stoller, Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 06:20:54 PM EST

I'm really angry about net neutrality right now. It's conventional wisdom that there will be no net neutrality legislation moved this cycle, which is completely fucking ridiculous. There's an open universal wireless broadband and cell phone network that the US could implement in 2009, but the FCC's Kevin Martin really wants to give it away. Meanwhile, the broadband providers are starting to impose cell phone like restrictions on their service, beginning with those lovely early termination fees that we all love. And Google and the internet companies are laughably incompetent in their lobbying capacity (this comes from the leadership of those companies, who find DC dumb and dirty and neuter their lobbyists).

from: MultiChannel News

Word to Locals: Set Service Standards
Competition Won’t Cure All, Advisers Tell Town Officials

By Linda Haugsted 4/9/2007

Video competition is not going to solve all customer-service problems, so cities and counties still need to craft and enforce local guidelines, attorneys advising the regulators said.

from: Technology Daily

Bell Companies Ask FCC To Maintain Content Rules

By David Hatch

(Monday, April 2) Regional Bell companies seeking to compete directly with cable television systems asked the FCC not to eliminate rules designed to ensure the widespread availability of content.