Cable Competition in Michigan Moving Slowly, Study Says

CABLE COMPETITION IN MICHIGAN MOVING SLOWLY, STUDY SAYS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
One year after the passage of a law designed to ease the entry into the cable market of competitive providers in Michigan, only 110 of 2,000 communities in the state have a choice of cable providers, according to a study by the law firm Howard & Howard, which counsels municipal governments. That translates to about one in 20 households receiving the benefit of Public Law 480, which replaced community-by-community cable regulation with a single state point-of-contact. The law was passed at the urging of AT&T Inc., which said the traditional franchising scheme was a barrier to quick entry to the market. "AT&T has received video franchises in some of the larger communities in our state," said attorney Jon Kreucher commented, "but in many of those communities, the pace of AT&T's buildout appears to be moving rather slowly. That means that the vast majority of our state's residents will probably be waiting for cable competition for a very long time."
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6526732.html?nid=4262