I love when people help me out with information! Towards that end I was delighted to speak today with Anne Higgins from the Minnesota League of Cities on the statewide cable franchising bill.

One thing I had missed in an earlier blog post was where the bill is going next. I had said that it will be going to the Committee on Commerce and Labor but it sounds as if it will get pulled back into the Telecommunications Regulation and Infrastructure Division after the first of the year. Also it seems as if Qwest has plans to try local cable franchises between now and the first of the year to see how accommodating local entities are.

Representative Johnson also mentioned getting together a working group or two to discuss the bill further and there was a mention of getting someone to talk about the FCC ruling on video conferencing. Elizabeth Emerson, committee administrator, at (651) 296-7175 or elizabeth.emerson@house.mn is the one to contact about the working groups.

One interesting aspect of the potential move is that there is no overlap in members of the Telecommunications Regulation and Infrastructure Division and the Committee on Commerce. It seems as if the learning curve could be potentially pretty steep.

I have not been following the bill as closely in the Senate I did finally listen to the archive of the meeting from April 24. Continue reading →