Tennessee local governments are more than willing to offer video franchises to new providers on an expedited basis, but they’re not willing to let the phone companies operate under rules that allow discrimination against portions of the community.

The FCC as of December 2006 requires local governments to issue a franchise within “90 days” of the telephone company’s application.

Their state-level process will most certainly create disadvantages for consumers. For example, they will be able to “cherry pick” neighborhoods and only offer services to the most affluent neighborhoods. While the money may be the same for local governments, the consumer will suffer because the disadvantaged will not have access to competition and prices will not go down.

BellSouth/AT&T says there is no competition in the cable television industry.

Tennessee cable companies operate under strong competition. Much of this competition comes from direct broadcast satellite providers (DBS/DirecTV, also known as “the dish”). The penetration of DBS in Tennessee has grown from 8.89% in July 1997 to 24.4% in October 2004, that’s over 364% in just 7 years, with no signs of slowing down. As a result of this substantial growth, nearly 1 in 4 households in Tennessee receive their video service from either DirecTV or Dish Network. This growth in the DBS market share has occurred in a short time period that is unprecedented when compared with any similar industry.

Moreover, the DBS industry is wholly unregulated, makes no significant investment in Tennessee, and thus makes little contribution to Tennessee’s economy and communities.

Tennessee cable companies do not have a monopoly and they do not have any “exclusive” franchise agreements. By federal law, the local franchises the cable companies negotiate with local government officials are not exclusive. Any company that wants to can apply today for a franchise to offer cable service and compete against the existing cable company.

Cable companies compete with satellite providers for television subscribers. They compete with numerous companies for high-speed Internet users. They even compete with BellSouth/AT&T who partners with DirecTV to offer phone service bundled with satellite TV.

The fact is that BellSouth/AT&T could begin to compete for cable television customers right now! They could go to any of the municipalities or counties in Tennessee where they currently offer phone service and negotiate a local franchise agreement. However, they choose not to! Instead they want lawmakers in to pass a special law that would benefit only phone companies.

Cable companies already compete and they recognize that consumers benefit from competition. Cable believes that it has the best product and services on the market and cable is not afraid to compete with anyone for the privilege to serve Tennessee consumers. With private investment funds, cable has developed advanced telecommunications services, such as phone service, that packaged with our other products, is extremely advantageous for consumers.

The question is not WHETHER there should be competition; the question is HOW companies should compete. Cable companies believe that competition should take place on a level playing field with everyone abiding by the same rules.