[37225] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: HR 1542 [OT, anti-BS attempt, US]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (M. David Leonard)
Mon May 7 18:12:28 2001
Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 16:46:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: "M. David Leonard" <mdl@equinox.shaysnet.com>
To: Greg Maxwell <gmaxwell@martin.fl.us>
Cc: Roeland Meyer <rmeyer@mhsc.com>,
"'Fletcher E Kittredge'" <fkittred@dargo.gwi.net>,
"'Charles Sprickman'" <spork@inch.com>,
Steve Sobol <sjsobol@NorthShoreTechnologies.net>,
"Joseph T. Klein" <jtk@titania.net>, nanog@merit.edu
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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.
>
>
>
