Resolution Urging Congress to Open the Cable Industry to More Competition in the Marketplace Exposed

The Resolution Urging Congress to Open the Cable Industry to More Competition in the Marketplace was passed by ALEC's Telecommunications Task Force on October 7, 1989, and included in the 1995 Sourcebook of American State Legislation. ALEC has attempted to distance itself from this piece of legislation after the launch of ALECexposed.org in 2011, but it has done nothing to get it repealed in the states where it previously pushed for it to be made into law.

ALEC Resolution Text

Summary

It is in the best interest of constituents, the states, the United States and the industry that the Telco/cable cross-ownership rules be changed to encourage increased competition in the provision of video services.

Lifting the cable cross-ownership restrictions and permitting increased competition in the cable business will also serve to enhance the economic development of the states by stimulating a state wide fiber optic telecommunications infrastructure.

Model Resolution

WHEREAS it is in the public interest to provide competition for existing cable TV services, both transmission and programming, through a telephone network capable of video transmission to enhance the development of new technologies and faster introduction of products and services to the marketplace; and

WHEREAS an integrated broadband network will provide consumers with greater choices of video program suppliers and preferred services-advantages that would be extended ultimately to all consumers, rural and urban, so as to avoid a divided society of information “haves” and “have-nets”; and

WHEREAS a statewide fiber optic network will serve as a vital component to the states’ future public and continuing education structures; and

WHEREAS a highly featured telephone network capable of video transmission would be an asset to international competitiveness for the U.S. and economic development within the states; and

WHEREAS adequate accounting and structural safeguards have been developed and are already in place in the state and federal jurisdiction to protect against cross-subsidization from telephone customers;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the legislature urges Congress to enact appropriate legislation to open up the cable market to competition, to enhance the development of new technologies, and to modernize the telecommunications infrastructure; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House/Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice-President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, and to every member of the Congress and Senate of the United States.

Passed by the Task Force on Telecommunications October 7, 1989.