The Alliance and Stevens' ATOR Act (HR 5252)

Summary:  The Senate should postpone voting on HR5252 until they have had enough time to consider and fix the potentially negative consequences of some provisions.  If the act is voted out of the Senate, the PEG provisions must not be weakened -- nor should they be stripped-out in Conference Committee.

It has been one full year since we first organized support for Public, Educational and Governmental Access (PEG) in the rewrite of our telecommunications law.  The Alliance has been engaged in a tremendous struggle to organize local communities against the powerful pressures of the Bell telephone companies.  We witnessed the difficulties imposed on both the majority and minority parties as they have tried to engage in a meaningful dialogue about the public good.  It has not been easy for the Congress nor for The Alliance community.  The Alliance is not well-funded, but we have been successful in organizing communities large and small in support of local democratic media.

The Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunity Reform (ATOR) Act has emerged from the Senate Commerce Committee.  It is not clear that the bill will be considered by the full Senate-- at last count, the committee was several votes short of being able to close debate.  If Senator Stevens is not able to demonstrate he has the votes for "cloture", then Senator Frist is not likely to allow such debate.  With these considerations, this is the Alliance position:

The ATOR Act (HR 5252) is generally not good for municipalities or for democratic media such as the internet and PEG Access. 

The PEG provisions, however, are likely the best to be obtained under the current Congress.  Therefore, we ask that our Senators make sure that the PEG provisions are not weakened on the Senate floor—nor stripped-out in conference committee, should the bill pass.

Furthermore, we are seriously concerned about several aspects of the ATOR Act:

• Net Neutrality     Our members have a direct interest in networks remaining neutral and open.  Our conversations with the Bells indicate that we will have to deliver our television signals to their head-end facilities via T-1 line—for which we would have to pay them.  The public interest obligation becomes a revenue stream for them:  The delivery system for this television signal must be full-speed and absolutely reliable between the PEG point of origination and the video provider.  Without real Net Neutrality, our members would have to pay at the same rates as Disney or HBO for a technical service which was previously provided as part of local cable franchises.  This would drive many access facilities out of business in less than a year.

• Ownership Caps     Any new legislation should retain caps on ownership of communications systems using public-rights-of-way.  We must allow local government oversight on transfers of ownership. As currently written, Adelphia could buy an existing franchise, leaving the local government powerless to review their fitness to operate in public property.  Such local review is necessary, both for protection of local communities and to prevent market dominance from suppressing free flow of information.

• Discrimination vs. Access to Broadband Communications   The value of PEG work is severely diminished if large portions of our communities are not able to participate.  Any new legislation should anticipate inevitable market imbalances and should have tests for identifying those imbalances as well as concrete methods for remedy.  Local governments should have a responsibility for this process.  Opportunity to participate in the communications of a free society should be available to all.  Company policy should not control a citizen’s liberty to participate in democratic dialogue. The redlining/build-out provisions of ATOR are inadequate to deal with this problem.

• Tax Amendments   The last minute amendments attached to the ATOR Act are viewed as extremely detrimental to municipal funding and as an infringement on the rights of States.  The Alliance recognizes that these severe reductions will necessarily have an impact on the ability of municipalities to fund PEG and other valuable services.  In essence, they reduce the value of franchise fees dramatically.  They should be dropped.

In short, we believe the legislation needs much more work.  We recognize that the conversation was, until recently, being driven by awesome industry-based momentum.  We ask that the Senate vote to give itself more time to correct the problems listed above.  Please ask your Senator not to approve this act without adequate protections for the public communications space.

The telecommunications industry is unlike any other in America.  While issues of anti-trust and market dominance apply to all, unchecked media consolidation would eliminate the ability of the public to correct any unintended consequences of this Act in the future.  It would allow the unregulated industry to control the ability of both the public and of Congress itself to disseminate information or to use electronic means to organize against the industry's perceived interests.

For this reason, we believe protection of community media spaces, such as PEG Access and the open Internet, should be of utmost importance in consideration of this bill.

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