RE: HR 1542 [OT, anti-BS attempt, US]

["M. David Leonard" <mdl () equinox shaysnet com>]

Greg-

        Maybe you feel comfortable with the extent of regulation you see 
(or think you see) in Florida but after a few years on the cable 
advisory board in Greenfield, Massachusetts, I can tell you that there is 
no effective regulation here.  I seriously doubt that there is meaningful 
cable regulation anywhere but I am willing to be corrected.  At least in 
Massachusetts, cable advisory boards are a sick joke.



                                        David Leonard
                                        ShaysNet


On Mon, 7 May 2001, Greg Maxwell wrote:

> On Mon, 7 May 2001, Roeland Meyer wrote:
>
> [snip]
> > Cable operators are unregulated local monopolies.
>
> No. They are regulated, by the franchise agreement. If the agreement isn't
> strong enough to ensure the highest best use of public right-of-way then
> it's a failure of the local government for not making it so (or the
> state/FCC for forbiding the local governments from placing certain
> requirements in the agreement).
>
> It appears that there is a lot of shooting from the hip going on here.
> cable regulation is fraught with legal complications and is changing
> rapidly right now, and the layman anaysis going on here isn't doing the
> topic justice.
>
> It's additionally complicated by the fact that the laws differ from state
> to state. In Florida, it's covered by Sec. 166.046, Florida Statutes and
> the Communications Act of 1934, the Cable Communications Policy Act of
> 1984, the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of
> 1992, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
>
> If there is any intrest, I believe that Martin County (Fl)'s 1999
> agreement with Adelphia is online someplace, I could track down a
> URL for it.