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Sunday, January 08, 2006

Ind. Law - Telecommunications rears its confusing head

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal's Sunday column is headlined "Telecommunications rears its confusing head." It is the third piece she has written on the subject within four days, and it is a good thing -- this is indeed a complex and difficult, and essential, area. (Access the two earlier stories here and here.)

Weidenbener also wrote an excellent story less than a month ago (see ILB entry here) headlined "Phone company oversight to stay: State regulators act to level playing field" about the IURC's "unanimous 50-page order that competition in the state has not developed enough to entirely eliminate oversight of the companies and let the market take over."

Today she writes:

Senate Bill 245 aims to update the state's regulatory structure, eventually eliminating the cost controls for local phone service and many of the rules that govern their operation. It strips the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission [IURC] of most of its oversight over those companies.

The bill also frees companies that want to provide video service -- essentially cable television -- from having to negotiate deals with every community where it wants to do business. Instead, a company could essentially sign up with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and then start selling its service.

Also, the bill provides some tax incentives to encourage private companies to expand high-speed Internet services through Indiana, but it puts some restrictions on local governments that want to provide that service to their residents.

This is not a bill on which there are two sides. There are about a dozen. So many kinds of companies will be affected by this bill that there is information coming from every direction.

The story goes on to summarize some of the positions. Weidenbener ends with:
Lawmakers will spend the next nine weeks trying to hash that out. They'll start with a committee hearing at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Senate chamber. Customers should pay attention. [my emphasis]
There is no word that video of this important Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Utilities, and Public Policy hearing on SB 245 is going to be made available live on the General Aseembly site, but this should be easy enough to do because the hearing is in the Senate Chamber. And of course, no word that the video record of this hearing is going to be posted online so that citizens who work doing the day may review it later.

The Indianapolis Star also has a story on the subject today: "Phone deregulation spurs debate: Companies say competition will lower prices; consumer groups not so sure." J.K. Wall writes:

The debate over telecommunications regulation was renewed in Indiana last week when Sen. Brandt Hershman, R- Wheatfield, unveiled a bill that would stop the state from regulating traditional phone prices.

It also would try to encourage cable competition by moving franchising authority to state government from local governments, limiting efforts by local governments to provide cable service and establishing incentives to increase high-speed Internet service throughout the state.

The telephone industry has failed to win deregulation in recent years, but Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Garton, R-Columbus, has said this could be the year for significant telecom deregulation.

Gov. Mitch Daniels spoke in favor of Hershman's proposal, Senate Bill 245. Indiana's current law was crafted in the days of "telephone poles and above-ground wires," he said. "The regulatory structure is not good enough for today."

Tim Oakes, executive director of the Indiana Cable Telecommunications Association, said the bill would increase costs for many subscribers and would allow phone companies to target only the most desirable customers. "The only people that would like this bill is SBC/AT&T and Verizon," Oakes said. "They're not interested in providing fiber to the premises; it's about fiber to the rich."

Phone companies such as AT&T Indiana (which was formerly SBC) like the idea, because it would allow them to roll out their as-yet-unreleased Internet protocol television.

Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, said cable companies want to maintain the current regulatory system to avoid extra competition. Both cable and phone firms are or will be offering their customers a bundle of TV, phone and Internet services. "We're generally in support of it," said Brinegar of Hershman's 78-page bill. "(It would help) to create competitive markets for broadband so there's some downward pressure on price."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 8, 2006 06:56 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law