Localities Oppose Cable Franchise FNPRM With Broadband Import; Industry Largely Backs It

and organizations, large and small, said the new action is a misreading of the Cable Act. MVPD allies disagreed with municipalities and backed much of the FNPRM, including barring franchise authorities "from using their video franchising authority to regulate the provision of most non-cable services, such as broadband Internet access service, offered over a cable system by an incumbent cable operator." Wednesday was the initial deadline. Among cities filing were New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis, San Jose, Austin, Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon, representing more than 20 million residents. Associations filing represented municipalities within states with many millions more residents. The FCC declined to comment. Barring local regulation of non-cable services and using a "light-touch" regulatory tack will facilitate broadband deployment, Verizon said. Though the FCC "believes it has the plenary authority to preempt state regulation of information services, as it does over telecommunications services," Public Knowledge commented, "it does not." Citing net neutrality deregulation, the group said that "having classified broadband as an information service, the Commission has determined that it is an unregulated service that it lacks regulatory authority over."