Barton: Bill Minus Cable Provisions

BARTON: BILL MINUS CABLE PROVISIONS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) is ready to advance a telecommunications bill stripped of provisions that have raised strong objections from the cable industry. The bill -- which would feature national video franchises for phone companies -- might be released in draft form today, followed by a hearing next week in the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Chairman Barton’s new schedule would call for a subcommittee vote in two weeks. The bill is not expected to include buildout requirements -- an omission that would allow phone companies to target affluent cable communities. The bill is also expected to allow the Federal Communications Commission to enforce network-neutrality principles it adopted last August. Rep Barton -- feeling press pressure from cable and conservative think tanks -- dropped two provisions he had accepted in principle two weeks ago in negotiations with the committee’s top Democrats, Reps. John Dingell (D-MI) and Edward Markey (D-MA). One provision would deny a national franchise for a cable incumbent until a phone provider had 15% of the local market, and another would bar cable operators from slashing rates only in those sections of a community where the phone company had initiated service. Industry and House aides said Barton’s decision to drop those two provisions while refusing to include buildout requirements has cost him the support of Reps Dingell and Markey, setting up a partisan contest when the committee meets to vote.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6318652.html?display=Breaking+News

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