When It Rains, It Pours
     But his is not the only pitch. This fall, dozens of localities are holding hearings and issuing rulings on the topic of open access as their cable franchise agreements come up for consideration. The handful of recent telecom mega-mergers is forcing city and county councils nationwide to reexamine their cable franchise deals. When they review them, they have the opportunity to impose contract limitations. Localities usually have 120 days, or a similar fixed time limit, to make any changes to their franchise agreement, according to Bond. And because this summer saw a slew of mergers, most notably AT&T's buyout of MediaOne and ExciteAtHome, the time limit is coming to a close now, forcing dozens of municipalities to deal with the issue concurrently. It also means that Bond and hundreds of other lobbyists are keeping busy everywhere from Ann Arbor, MI to Somerville, MA. Just this week, the Miami-Dade County Commission ruled that cable TV firms won't have to open their high-speed lines to competitors, saying that broadband regulation is a national issue and should not be decided by local government.
     Pittsburgh is one of the cities reexamining its franchise, but regardless of what it decides, a state move may pre-empt the decision. On Thursday, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives is holding a hearing on a bill that would require cable operators providing broadband services in the state to offer competitors open access to their network. The first such piece of legislation nationwide is drawing throngs of lobbyists to the Keystone State to quickly educate members of the consumer protection committee on bill's potential impact.
     Rep. Ron Raymond, R, said he introduced the bill, H.R. 1516, after monitoring the gas and electric deregulations that passed through the legislature. Pennsylvania also has been involved in requiring Bell Atlantic to open its phone lines to local phone service competitors, and Raymond said it opposed the same requirements for cable firms. "I don't want to see my neighbors have to buy, at full price, AtHome (service) just to get to the Internet to use AOL," Raymond said. "A lot of people have a lot of years invested in their ISP, and their Internet (e-mail) address is not forwardable" if they change providers, he added.
     Since introducing the bill, e-mails, faxes and letters have poured into his office from every side of the debate, he said. And although AT&T isn't testifying at the hearing, company representatives have been making their rounds to the consumer affairs committee members to make their case.
     "But I'm a smart guy," Raymond said. "I talked to them beforehand."

Information Overload
     That wealth of information could lead to disastrous results, some say. State policymakers are not accustomed to heavy, Washington-level lobbying, but this issue has brought the big players to the states. Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Armstrong, R, said he's been approached by a multitude of groups and individuals because of his leadership role with the state's Internet Caucus and Information Technology Subcommittee, as well as his involvement with the National Conference of State Legislature's commerce committee and Federal Communications Committee State and Local Advisory Committee.
     Armstrong is pushing committee members to get educated on the issue and said he is planning to talk with its chairman, Rep. Chris Wogan, R, to urge caution, noting that the legislature would be setting precedent as the first state in the nation to consider such a bill. Lobbyists from both sides have been making compelling arguments, he said, making it even more difficult for his colleagues to choose.
     "If they're being solicited by both sides, I'm sure they're totally confused," Armstrong said. "I have more of an understanding, but it's been difficult for me to take a position because I don't want to step in and start regulating where we haven't been regulating."
     However, he notes, after state regulators imposed similar regulations on Bell Atlantic, no move could be seen as hypocritical. Legislators, above all, want to take the position that they are helping consumers by allowing competition, which will ultimately lead to the best price. But that may end up hurting the consumer in the long run, as MediaOne and Cox Communications have recently told communities considering open access provisions, or even thinking about discussing such measures, that they have stalled broadband deployment in their area.
     "That's a very real threat," Armstrong notes. "(Cable companies) are very serious about deploying their technology in Pennsylvania, but if they're going to be met with regulated access, they could make the decision that they're going to implement it somewhere else before they deal with Pennsylvania. I'd rather say 'do it here in Pennsylvania. We want to be on the cutting edge and keep government out of the way.'"
     Even if cable companies decide to deploy their high-speed service and open it up to competitors, they could set the prices so high that competitive ISPs wouldn't even be able to get in on the game, cautioned Robert Schweiss of Planet St. Louis, a local ISP located in the Missouri city. Last week, an aldermanic committee there approved a bill to require an open access provision from the next cable company offering services in the area, and now Schweiss is looking to his own hometown, suburban Kirkwood, to do the same. He's been using his contacts with federal and state government officials to meet and greet local decision makers and informally lobby them by attending their events and raising the issue.
     Local Internet service providers in Pennsylvania have been among those lobbying legislators, and Shawn McGorry of ISP Stargate Communications is scheduled to testify at the Thursday hearing. With cable companies threatening not to rebuild their networks, offer competitive phone service, expand their video offerings and offer commercial data services if open access is required, municipalities are taking notice, he said. "Certainly municipalities want to make sure their town is on the cutting edge of technology," McGorry said. "It's a serious threat to them…but it's really just threatening to shoot themselves in the head."
     Raymond promises that the hearing will address those issues, and said he wants to make sure AT&T doesn't sell cable access to its own companies at a lower price than it offers the competition. But until the issue is settled, and with more than a dozen meetings nationwide scheduled in the next two weeks on the issue, the maneuvering doesn't show signs of stopping. That doesn't bother everyone.
     "I'm just sitting back, looking at what they're doing with interest," Raymond said. "The Internet is where it's at. It's fun."
—by Stephanie Lash