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I live in California and was hoping to lobby my municipal government to bargain for better service when our cable franchise came up for renewal. What I learned

by ipsin 13y ago

I live in California and was hoping to lobby my municipal government to bargain for better service when our cable franchise came up for renewal. What I learned was that this bargaining power had been transferred to the state level in 1996. When I talked to those who'd been in charge of the process previously, they claimed the state CPUC served as a rubber stamp. http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Telco/Information+for+providing+service/videofranchising.htm http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Telco/Information+for+providing+s... If you live in California, the CPUC is, theoretically, the organization you want to lobby. When I tried to get a roadmap for broadband expansion in my area, I did not have much luck.

exelius 13y ago
Yeah, unfortunately there's not much you can do. The big telcos are so politically powerful that any individual market (especially if it's a smaller one) doesn't have much bargaining power. This isn't a problem specific to telcos; this just happens anywhere you have one large unified side negotiating with a number of fractured parties with different interests (and would likely be the same when dealing with a government bureaucracy vs. a telco.)
spikels 13y ago
This drives me crazy. The whole reason they are given a decades long monopoly is so they build the infrastructure. Once it is built there is absolutely no good reason to renew the monopoly. It's like continuing to pay on your 30 year mortgage after 30 years! And when local governments had this power they renewed the cable monopolies anyway?! In 2005 San Francisco, for $8 million upfront and $500k a year, the SF government sold Comcast exclusive rights to SF's 800,000+ residents for 4 years. And this has effectively been extended indefinitely. This is a good example of the difference between the public and private sectors. [1] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-Board-panel-OKs-Comcast-deal-2650404.php http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-Board-pa...

by ipsin 13y ago

exelius 13y ago

Yeah, unfortunately there's not much you can do. The big telcos are so politically powerful that any individual market (especially if it's a smaller one) doesn't have much bargaining power. This isn't a problem specific to telcos; this just happens anywhere you have one large unified side negotiating with a number of fractured parties with different interests (and would likely be the same when dealing with a government bureaucracy vs. a telco.)

spikels 13y ago

This drives me crazy. The whole reason they are given a decades long monopoly is so they build the infrastructure. Once it is built there is absolutely no good reason to renew the monopoly. It's like continuing to pay on your 30 year mortgage after 30 years! And when local governments had this power they renewed the cable monopolies anyway?! In 2005 San Francisco, for $8 million upfront and $500k a year, the SF government sold Comcast exclusive rights to SF's 800,000+ residents for 4 years. And this has effectively been extended indefinitely. This is a good example of the difference between the public and private sectors. [1] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-Board-panel-OKs-Comcast-deal-2650404.php http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-Board-pa...