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ISPs Have Become Masters of State-Level Lobbying

Paying off national and state politicians along with lobbyists to get your way seems like a tradition within the internet/TV business. When AT&T didn’t want competition in Wisconsin, they paid off politicians to dress up AT&T’s view as “fiscal responsibility." When Verizon wanted to sniff out the Canadian telecom market, they hired a slew of lobbyists to see if they could the country to change their telecom rules. When Cablevision wants to stop any other company from entering their markets, Cablevision cries foul about a “level playing field” and brings lawyers/lobbyists to city council meetings to help keep out the competitors.

Speaking of Cablevision, a new report came out on Tuesday, which showed that Time Warner Cable and Cablevision were two mega donors of New York’s state politicians. Time Warner Cable Inc. gave state politicians $558,710 in 2013, with Cablevision Corp. giving $354,097.

Thankfully, at least one state director seems able to see exactly what Cable TV companies continue pouring money into the politicians pockets.

“Cable TV…..is a industry which is continually trying to roll back and unwind the consumer protections that are in our law. The telecom industry wants to make sure that rates stay high, that consumer protections are lessened, and they have a anti-regulatory fervor,” Common Cause state director Susan Lerner said at a Capitol press conference.

Sadly, it seems that the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has proposed a budget for 2014-15, which does nothing but help those giving the most money to his campaign. In the budget proposal are several telecom deregulation proposals such as:

quote:
Most recently, Verizon sold its network to Frontier in 14 states. This budget legislation would eliminate regulatory review of such a process, which currently requires a finding that a sale or merger is in the public’s interest.

Waive state law requiring Verizon and other telephone companies to seek regulatory approval of a major rate increases.
This mastery of lobbying on the state level is likely what's going to play a starring role in getting Comcast's attempted acquisition of Time Warner Cable approved by regulators, even if nobody other than Comcast actually sees any benefit to the deal.

Most recommended from 17 comments


existenz
join:2014-02-12

2 recommendations

existenz

Member

And they ghost write bills pretending to be a local interest

They tried this in KS posing as a 'local' group. The bill was entirely ghost written by corporate telcom lobbyists from elsewhere and passed the House (paid off?) but din't make through Senate. Most media implied it passed but didn't.

cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26

2 recommendations

cork1958

Premium Member

AT&T and Verizon

Glad the article mentioned those 2 rip off artists. Both of them need to be totally disbanded! 2 of the most disgusting/despicable/deplorable companies in existence.

Lobbyists and any "donations" from anyone other than private individuals, and only up to a certain amount, to ANYTHING government or law deciding sectors need to be outlawed also.