Governor Says He’ll Push For Broadband Expansion

Governor Phil Bredesen says he’s not on the side of either AT&T or Comcast in their fight over a state franchising bill. The governor says instead, he’s focused on the availability of broadband computer coverage in Tennessee. He says the concurrent coverage isn’t adequate.

“How do you best promote that coverage, not only for citizens and things like cable, but also for businesses. It’s particularly acute in rural areas of our state, which as you know, I’m concerned very much about promoting business in, so I think the possibility exists, I’m not promising it, of maybe weighing in, in some fashion and maybe proposing some approach to the thing that I think might make some sense.”

If the governor’s proposal stresses business development, it may not please either AT&T or cable companies. The two entities have mobilitized almost every professional lobbyist in the state to battle over the franchising legislation.

Bredesen’s communication director, Bob Corney, announced this week that he’ll be joining a public relations firm whose biggest Tennessee client is AT and T. The governor says Corney can’t pick up that fight for another twelve months because of the administration’s ethics rules.

“He obviously is prohibited from lobbying on the part of that, on the part of AT and T, for a year, because of his position, and basically, once he told me, which was some time ago now, that he was planning on doing this, we began excluding him from any meetings related to those particular subjects.”

The cable-casters and AT and T fought to a draw in 2007 over the issue of whether the giant phone company could obtain one license to serve video customers anywhere in the state. Cable companies have been required to get such contracts city by city.

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As a consumer, the governor says, he isn’t in either camp with his home computer.

Actually my computer is hooked up to neither. I was never able to get the service that I wanted, and so I actually bought a T-1 line back home, so it’s hooked up to neither of them.