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Senate holds up debate on telecom-friendly bill

Middle ground sought in conflict of cable and telephone companies.

By Rebecca Catalanello, Times Staff Writer
Published April 13, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - The packed room emptied in a flash.

As soon as Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Hialeah, announced his committee would be postponing debate on perhaps the most heavily lobbied bill of the legislative session, theater seats flipped up and dozens headed for the doors.

The bill (SB 998) would help telephone companies compete more easily with cable providers by granting them statewide contracts, rather than negotiating each and every contract with local governments as cable companies now do.

Cable lobbyists don't like it. Telephone lobbyists love it. Local government lobbyists are worried it will strip their clients of control. And consumer groups are frightened it will encourage telephone companies to target high-income communities and ignore the rest.

The House already passed a version. But in the Senate a new amendment made telephone companies uncomfortable.

So, Garcia ordered everyone to work it out. By next week.

"This is a huge issue" cable industry lobbyist Steve Wilkerson said. "To try to build a consensus is difficult."

Beverly Campbell, a volunteer with ACORN, an umbrella organization representing low- and middle-income community groups, shook her head in disbelief as she stood outside the meeting room amid men and women in suits with Blackberries.

She rode a bus from Orlando just to ask lawmakers to oppose the bill unless it includes a requirement that telephone companies seek to serve 100 percent of the low-income communities - not 20 to 50 percent as the bill now says.

"Anybody who wants to speak will get here anyway they can," she said.

Ron Book, a telephone company lobbyist, said the pressure is high for industry leaders to come up with a palatable compromise. But whether they will get there is anyone's guess.

"It's too big an issue to speculate whether there will (be a compromise) or there won't," he said. "When you're in the seventh week, there's that much more incentive to come to agreement."

[Last modified April 12, 2007, 22:41:47]