Hard Path to New Terrain for Telecom

HARD PATH TO NEW TERRAIN FOR TELECOM
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera]
A push by the nation's leading phone companies for major telecommunications legislation could end up being the biggest dropped call of the year. Once on a fast track, congressional measures that would make it easier for Verizon Communications, AT&T and other companies to offer TV services -- and possibly lower consumers' bills -- have become bogged down by controversial side issues and Capitol Hill turf wars. Because of a shortened election-year session and a legislative calendar overstuffed with immigration reform, domestic spying and other controversial issues, the telecom legislation's prospects have dimmed. "There was once a movie entitled "8 Million Ways to Die," said Blair Levin, an analyst at investment bank Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., referring to the 1986 Hal Ashby movie about Los Angeles. "What you're seeing is a movie '8 Million Ways to Die' in D.C., but it's not about a person, it's about a bill." Levin adds, "This is a bill that needs to clear a lot of hurdles in a relatively short period of time. And the hurdles look a lot higher."
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-telecom22may22,1,6486069.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
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