The Federal Communications Commission approved rules this week that could make it easier for telephone companies to sell television service in Tennessee, but BellSouth wants the state to go further.
The Atlanta-based phone giants is making a push to compete with cable providers Comcast and Charter by offering a web-based service called ‘IPTV.’ The new FCC ruling forces local governments, who now have sole franchising rights, to expedite that process.
BellSouth officials say it still takes too much time to negotiate with individual cities. They say it gives current cable providers a virtual monopoly over the TV and broadband Internet markets.
State Senator Roy Herron, a Democrat from Dresden, chairs the state’s broadband task force which has been researching whether broader franchising rules could lower rates and expand coverage.
The committee is made up of representatives from all sides of the telecommunications industry. Herron says that will make it difficult to reach a clear consensus.
“I don’t expect the cable folks and the telephone folks and the municipal folks to all be on the same page of the hymnal. I just hope that at some point we can get to using the same hymnal, and maybe we can bring some harmony out of it.”
Herron says recommendations will be voted on directly before the General Assembly convenes in January. He says statewide franchising rights along with other broadband expansion initiatives will be debated at length in the upcoming session.
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