Local Lobbyists Launch Telecom Reform Site

LOCAL LOBBYISTS LAUNCH TELECOM REFORM SITE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
City and county lobbyists are painting pro-telephone-company legislative reform as a blackjack game where consumers lose on a newly launched Web site (www.thetruthontelecomreform.org/). The site is sponsored by the Telecommunications Advocacy Coalition. Its members are the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the Government Finance Officers Association and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors. The groups asserted that moving video franchising from local governments to state or federal levels will cost local government up to $8 billion in revenue annually. Local agreements mean city officials can quickly act on consumer complaints, can seek compensation for the use of public rights-of-way and can assure that roads opened by providers as they install plant are properly repaired, according to opinions expressed on the new site. The site invites visitors into the "big telco casino" to play a hand of blackjack with chips bearing labels including "consumer complaints" and "first responders." The telephone "dealer" hand always gets 21, with the consumer getting messages like, "You just lost local control. Who's going to make sure big telecom repairs the roads they dig up?"
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6421010.html?display=Breaking+News