THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120185
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Virginia's cable television operators and local telephone companies are sharply divided over legislation that the cable industry says would help break down competitive barriers separating the two industries.
Cable lobbyists this week asked their phone-industry counterparts to support a bill that would turn over to the State Corporation Commission the job of de-monopolizing telecommunications in Virginia. But Bell Atlantic Corp., the state's largest local phone company, criticized the idea.
Under the cable-industry proposal, the General Assembly would remove existing statutes against telecommunications competition and then give the three-member commission the authority to implement an actual plan whenever and however it wished.
Cable executives said they made the proposal after concluding that there would be no way to work out a plan that would satisfy both sides in the politically charged legislative arena.
Bell Atlantic spokesman Paul Miller said Friday, however, that his company is ``fundamentally opposed'' to the legislature washing its hands of the matter. ``We feel that broad policy matters like this really belong to the General Assembly,'' he said. ``We have faith that the lawmakers of Virginia will set the right course for this issue.''
The cable operators, preparing for the General Assembly session that starts in January, want to convince state policymakers that laws and regulations protecting the monopolies of local phone companies like Bell Atlantic are unfair and economically backward.
As the phone companies, taking advantage of court decisions and federal regulatory approval, prepare to break into cable TV, the cable operators say they should be allowed to provide phone services. A state law expressly forbids direct competition to local phone companies on the most basic services.
``We're concerned if we're not allowed into the local phone loop, we would be put out of business,'' said Franklin R. Bowers, vice president and general manager of Cox Cable Hampton Roads Inc.
Bell Atlantic's Miller said the company supports competition in principle, but thinks the cable companies want to take unfair advantage of the new freedoms. Bell Atlantic wants guarantees that new providers won't ``cherry-pick'' its most lucrative customers and leave it subsidizing service to those who are less well off.
It also would like the go-ahead to offer long-distance services across state lines - something that would take action at the federal level.
Miller said Bell Atlantic executives also are optimistic that the new Republican-controlled Congress will pass a sweeping national bill that will answer many of the questions now in contention in Virginia.
Del. George H. Heilig Jr., a Norfolk Democrat who oversees telecommunications matters in the state House, said Friday that he hasn't given up hope for an agreement between the battling industries.
In spite of their differences, Heilig, chairman of the House Corporations, Insurance and Banking Committee, said: ``I think they're headed in the right direction. It's just a little problem of how they're getting there.''
But one cable-industry representative, who asked not to be named, said a compromise looks impossible. He said cable operators may have to wage a massive public-relations campaign to have any hope of getting action on legislation in the next General Assembly session.
Earlier this week, the National Cable Television Association and a coalition of long-distance phone companies, including AT&T, MCI and Sprint, targeted Virginia as one of six states in which they will make major lobbying pushes next year against local phone monopolies.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY CABLE TELEVISION
VIRGINIA STATE CORPORATION COMMISSION
by CNB