More on the FCC and franchises

http://blog.pff.org/archives/2005/08/reasonableness_1.html

What’s a Republican to do? Support free trade? Or local authority?

Although this sounds a lot like the federal government infringing on the rights of localities, I have to go with the greater benefit here, which is free trade. I am no fan of the FCC dictating the terms of broadband rollout, and under Powell and Martin, they have generally sided with deregulation. A good trend and the markets are responding.

In the case of local franchises, there is an argument to be made that the feds have no say here. But they do, rightly, have a say in preventing barriers to interstate commerce.

The above link is a nice primer on what could become a headline issue -- for geeks like me.