mrchris
We don't miss you Bush
Premium
join:2002-10-01
North Babylon, NY | Crybaby
Fucking crybaby, go it your way with stupid lawsuits and waste money! |
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odreian615
join:2006-01-18
Chicago, IL | This is why we wont get 100mbps service
companies have to jump through hoops |
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alphapointe
Premium,MVM
join:2002-02-10
Columbia, MO
clubs: | No, this is why we get bad service, because they don't want to be held to any standards.
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Resistance is NOT futile...It's voltage divided by current. |
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heathcpe
join:2002-03-19
Brandon, MS
| WTF Does a Franchise Agreement Do?
The wires are already run to offer phone service, why does a company need another agreement with a city to offer other serivces over the same wire???? Can someone elaborate on what a frachise agreement is for, or point me to some good information. DirecTV doesn't have these agreements to my knowledge. |
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firewire9999
join:2004-07-11
Livonia, MI | Hmmmmmmmmmmm one word: MONEY
Local cities use the agreements get money, power, channels and all kinds of crap................... |
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heathcpe
join:2002-03-19
Brandon, MS
| reply to alphapointe
Re: This is why we wont get 100mbps service
said by alphapointe  :No, this is why we get bad service, because they don't want to be held to any standards. With three options for service I think any company with any interest in keeping customers will meet the standards that customers desire. |
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bogey780
join:2004-03-19
Here | reply to heathcpe
Re: WTF Does a Franchise Agreement Do?
Pretty much. It's completely IP. The only equipment that is exclusively TV is in the CO and the actual tuner. |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
| reply to heathcpe
said by heathcpe :The wires are already run to offer phone service, why does a company need another agreement with a city to offer other serivces over the same wire???? Can someone elaborate on what a frachise agreement is for, or point me to some good information. It's all about taxes and the city pols wanting their piece of the pie on anything in the city they can squeeze money from.
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My BLOG
My Web Page |
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xerxes3642
join:2006-02-24
Saint Charles, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| Franchise agreements protect customers
»www.techdirt.com/articles/200601···_F.shtml
Franchise payments are basically rent for public rights of way (unless you want them to dig in your yard or put poles in whenever they want with no oversight at all).
Franchise agreements also insure that the city is serviced fairly (not just affluent areas).
Franchise agreements create government,educational and public cable channels for local areas.
They also set up a customer advocate locally to take care of local problems (imagine calling some federal franchise authority to get a cable in your yard buried).
Bottom line, franchise agreements are cables "business license and rent for rights of way). Telcos think they can cost on their federal regulations that were put in place in I think 1918, while forcing cable companies to deal with local franchises thus creating an unfair playing ground for competetion. |
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just_looking
@sca.se
| I see it this way
Make them pay.
As a homeowner, if these franchise fee's are eliminated, the local gov't is going to still want their money. How are they going to recoup their loss? They are going to raise our taxes.
So it is either a huge company, with billions in the bank, paying, or it is me, the little guy who is faced with rising costs just about everywhere they turn, who is going to pay.
I vote for the big companies footing the bill. |
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AnonUser2
@motive.com
| reply to xerxes3642
Re: Franchise agreements protect customers
This is the positive side. The dark side is that its a squeeze play for the city to get voice/data/video services for employees, city bldgs and departments, etc. I know this from personal experience. The city of San Jose remained locked in a battle with TCI/ATT Broadband over high-speed Internet. The city of San Jose lagged literally years behind others in deployment, stuck on issues such as free access for the city. |
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bassthumpa
Premium
join:2000-12-26
Austin, TX
 ·AT&T U-Verse
1 edit | reply to xerxes3642
That's the intent, but definitely not the "bottom line". They're also used by some cities as a way to extort for freebies and perks. I remember ready of one town that demanded that an applicant to provide free phone service for all city employees. What the heck does that have to do with any tax or returns on right-of-way?
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Myspace |
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garagerock
Premium
join:2002-06-14
Louisville, KY | reply to AnonUser2
aye aye aye! yes, y'all have invested thousands of hours of research on this subject and know, for a fact, that all municipalities in this country are greedy and corrupt and demand such things. (rolls eyes) |
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PolarBear
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
Premium
join:2005-01-03
·CableOne
| Analogy
I think if a football team suddenly decides to play baseball, they need to adhere to the rules of the diamond. If a baseball team decides to play football, it needs to adhere to the rules of the gridiron.The football team can't just walk onto the diamond and say "well we're a football team, so we don't have to follow the rules of baseball; we're going to follow our rules."
You don't chew gum in Singapore, even if it is ok in the U.S.
So if a cable company wants to offer phone service, they need to play by the phone rules. If a telco wants to offer TV, they need to play by the TV rules.
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"I invented it, Bill made it famous." --David Bradley, the inventor of Ctrl+Alt+Del. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| reply to xerxes3642
Re: Franchise agreements protect customers
said by xerxes3642 :Franchise payments are basically rent for public rights of way (unless you want them to dig in your yard or put poles in whenever they want with no oversight at all). If a company already has an agreement in place for one kind of service, e.g., telephone, then whey should the company's customers have to pay twice if the company wants to run cable or broadband lines in the same spot as the phone lines?
said by xerxes3642 :Franchise agreements also insure that the city is serviced fairly (not just affluent areas). This is the only goal that franchising seems to be good at. In this case, the franchise process has ensured that everyone gets zero service, so it is perfectly equal throughout all parts of the jurisdiction.
said by xerxes3642 :Franchise agreements create government,educational and public cable channels for local areas. Stuff that no one watches anyway. I'd love to save an extra buck or two if it meant eliminating these channels.
said by xerxes3642 :They also set up a customer advocate locally to take care of local problems (imagine calling some federal franchise authority to get a cable in your yard buried). Considering how bad of an image cable TV service has in this country, it is hard to see how effective local franchise authorities are at this particular sport.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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bogey780
join:2004-03-19
Here | reply to PolarBear
Re: Analogy
If only the cable companies had to follow the same rules as the telcos do for phone servide... |
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SD6
join:2005-03-26 | reply to garagerock
Research? Yes
There has been research done, and the problem is quite common. The FCC will be releasing their findings soon. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| reply to garagerock
Re: Franchise agreements protect customers
said by garagerock :... all municipalities in this country are greedy and corrupt and demand such things. This is government we're talking about. Prejudging it to be be corrupt and greedy is perfectly reasonable.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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Trinijoy
Premium
join:2005-09-12
Brick, NJ | Pathetic.
Wow isn't this like the 100th lawsuit in this month? people are just too sue happy. |
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bassthumpa
Premium
join:2000-12-26
Austin, TX
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to bogey780
Re: Analogy
said by bogey780 :If only the cable companies had to follow the same rules as the telcos do for phone servide... Bingo. But they seem to forget about that aspect when they're fighting against telco-TV.
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Myspace |
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