State Senator John Fonfara
October 24, 2007
Fonfara Calls on DPUC to Allow Television Competition to Take Hold
FCC: Cable Companies Without Competition Raised Prices 93% in Ten Years; With Competitor in Market, Trend Reversed and Prices Fell 25% or More
Senator Fonfara speaks at the press conference calling on the Department of Public Utility Control to allow television service competition in the state to take hold. (October 25, 2007)
At a press conference held today, State Senator John Fonfara (D Hartford) and Representative Steve Fontana (D-North Haven), the co-chairs of the Connecticut General Assembly's Energy and Technology Committee expressed frustration that a new state law that will encourage competition in the TV marketplace is not being implemented. The new law, PA 07-253 ("An Act Concerning Certified Competitive Video Service") took effect on October 1, 2007 and ushered in a new era where Connecticut consumers would have a choice beyond their cable company.
In passing this new law, legislators were responding to the pleas of their constituents who had grown tired of regular price increases from their cable companies. According to the FCC's most recent study on cable pricing, cable rates have increased 93 percent in the last ten years.
"For consumers, the best regulatory structure is one that encourages competition," said Senator John Fonfara. "The status quo in Connecticut has failed consumers, saddling them with only one choice and high rates. That is why the General Assembly undertook the work it did to bring new providers into the marketplace and to use competition to lower rates and improve services."
Representative Steve Fontana continued, "In passing the bill, our committee sought to bring Connecticut law into the 21st century with respect to video competition. We created a comprehensive, balanced mechanism to transform our monopolistic landscape for video services into a competitive, level playing field that encourages technological innovation and investment from new competitors, while preserving all key consumer protections."
Competition Follows Passage
PA 07-253 was overwhelmingly passed in the State House (134-12) and State Senate (35-1) and signed into law by Governor Rell on July 11, 2007, and went into effect on October 1st. Before noon on the law's first day, the DPUC received the first application from a company seeking to become a Competitive Video Provider. This company was AT&T, who wanted to continue to roll out their new Internet Protocol TV offering, AT&T U-verse TV to residents around Connecticut.
But within two weeks of this milestone, a frustrating reality took shape. The DPUC, charged by the state law with the simple task of ensuring that applications for the new franchise certificates are complete, announced that it was rejecting AT&T's application, ignoring clear legislative language and intent.
The regulators' decision came even though the primary authors of the legislation had publicly clarified their intent. A joint letter that Representative Fontana and Senator Fonfara filed with the DPUC in support of AT&T's application and addressing the intent of the new law said, in part:
"In writing PA 07-253, we and our colleagues in the legislature understood the history and the background involving AT&T's entry into the video service market. We knew of the DPUC's July 2006 ruling that AT&T's video service was not a 'cable service.' We also knew that this ruling was under appeal to the federal courts by various parties. Given these facts it is ridiculous, as some have suggested, to say that the new law has been superseded by the resulting federal court decision. We wrote this law so that it would be in effect no matter what decision the court made.
"The intent of PA 07-253 was to supersede the DPUC's July 2006 ruling and the court appeals arising from that decision. In doing so, the new law was ensuring that new entrants could come into the market as licensed providers, responsible for following a number of strong consumer protection requirements. At the same time, the new law would ensure that competition from new entrants couldn't be threatened by a successful federal court challenge of the DPUC's July 2006 decision.
"Obviously the General Assembly could have taken no action, yet we believed no action represented a lose-lose situation. If AT&T were successful in the litigation it would not be required to follow important consumer protections. While if the cable industry and the Office of Consumer Counsel were successful, AT&T would be forced from the market and consumers would be denied a competitive choice. Neither of those scenarios was in the best interest of the consumers and people of the state of Connecticut."
The new law contains a host of important consumer protections, many of which are modeled after or identical to the protections that are in place for existing cable television providers and their customers. These include requirements preventing new providers from discriminating based on income, require that new providers carry all local public, education and government (PEG) programming carried by existing providers today, provide financial support for PEG operations, and have an advisory council to represent the interests of their customers, among others. A complete list of the protections in the law is found at the end of this release.
Senator Fonfara and Rep. Fontana were joined at the press conference by Dan Sullivan, the board President at Farmington Woods Master Association, a residential condominium complex in Farmington that chose AT&T to be their video provider over Comcast who had provided the service for many years.
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Senator Fonfara’s |
Listing of Senator Fonfara’s recent press releases and a Press Kit with official head shots and bio. |
Press Aide Lloyd Wimbish |
