^{Democracy & Technology Blog} “Fibers and Frequencies”

Last night in his State of the State address, Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana endorsed what I think is the nation’s most aggressive effort to reform state telecom laws. The relevant excerpt:

“Perhaps the single most important step government can take for our economic future is to ensure the best possible infrastructure, the strongest possible framework, to support the businesses of tomorrow.
“In a wired world, “infrastructure” no longer means just roads, rail lines, or waterways but also the invisible fibers and frequencies over which today’s most vital and valuable commerce is transacted. It is time to modernize a telecommunications regulatory system set up for the age of monopolies and copper wire to unleash this century’s most dynamic, diverse and competitive technologies. Two decades ago, Indiana waited too long, left an outmoded regulatory regime in place, and lost its in-state banks as a result. This time, let’s be among the leaders in freeing investors to connect our businesses, small towns, and homes to the unseen skeleton of the New Economy.”

On Tuesday I had testified before the Indiana Senate Utility Committee with special focus on the legislation’s establishment of a statewide video franchise. My own family went through the gruleing and ridiculous local franchise process in the early 1980s before my grandfather built our town’s cable TV network. These local franchise processes have always been full of politics and favoritism, and although the local franchise process for large companies like Verizon and AT&T might not be as ugly as it was for competing small investor groups 25 years ago, it still would impose years worth of negotiation, lawyers, extractions, fees, and favoritism. As my father recently recounted, “The franchise process is 90 percent politics, 10 percent substance….No one should ever have to go through that again.” Texas passed a statewide video franchise last year, and Verizon, AT&T, and a host of smaller Texas telecom companies have leapt forward with new investments in advanced fiber networks. Indiana would be the second state to radically simplify the process so new competitors can start investing in new networks today, not five years from now when they’ve finished negotiating with 300 towns and counties across the state.
-Bret Swanson