Take Action

There are many ways you can get involved and stop Verizon from stepping on the rights of your town. You can write a letter to your legislator asking him or her to oppose this legislation (Senate Bill 1975), or call them to express your opinion. You could also write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, expressing how you feel. Additionally, to invite someone from the network to speak at your organization or community event, please Contact Us.

The easiest way to get involved is to sign our petition. Join the network. Get involved. Contact Us.

Contact your legislator – Ask them to Keep it Local on cable franchising.

Below is some sample text for an electronic letter to your legislators. Please feel free to edit into your own words. By filling in your name and town, a message will automatically be delivered to your legislators after clicking submit.

Your Name	Your Email
Town
Select One Abington Acton Acushnet Adams Agawam Ahsburnham Alford Amesbury Amherst Andover Aquinnah Arlington Ashburnham Ashby Ashfield Ashland Athol Attleboro Auburn Avon Ayer Barnstable Barre Becket Bedford Belchertown Bellingham Belmont Berkley Berlin Bernardston Beverly Billerica Blackston Blackstone Blandford Bolton Boston Bourne Boxborough Boxford Boylston Braintree Branstable Brewster Bridgewater Brimfield Brockton Brookfield Brookline Buckland Burlington Cambridge Canton Carlisle Carver Chalremont Charlton Chatham Chelmsford Chelsea Cheshire Chester Chesterfield Chicopee Chilmark Clarksburg Clinton Colrain Concord Conway Cummington Dalton Danvers Dartmouth Dedham Deerfield Dennis Dighton Douglas Dover Dracut Dudley Dukes Dunstable Duxbury East Bridgewater East Brookfield East Longmeadow Eastham Easthampton Easton Edgartown Egremont Erving Essex Everett Fairhaven Fall River Falmouth Fitchburg Florida Foxborough Framingham Franklin Freetown Gardner Georgetown Gill Gloucester Goshen Gosnold Grafton Granby Granville Great Barrington Greenfield Groton Groveland Hadley Halifax Hamilton Hampden Hancock Hanover Hanson Hardwick Harvard Harwich Hatfield Haverhill Hawley Heath Hingham Hinsdale Holbrook Holden Holland Holliston Holyoke Hopedale Hopkinton Hubbardston Hudson Hull Huntington Ipswich Kingston Lakeville Lancaster Laneborough Lanesborough Lawrence Lee Leicester Lenox Leominster Leverett Lexington Leyden Lincoln Littleton Longmeadow Lowell Ludlow Lunenberg Lynn Lynnfield Machester By-The-Sea Malden Manchester By-The-Sea Mansfield Marblehead Marin Marion Marlborough Marshfield Mashpee Mattapoisett Maynard Medfield Medford Medway Melrose Mendon Merrimac Methuen Middleborough Middlefield Middleton Milford Millbury Millis Millville Milton Monroe Monson Montague Monterey Montgomery Mount Washington Nahant Nantucket Natick Needham New Ashford New Bedford New Braintree New Marlborough New Salem Newbury Newburyport Newburyporyt Newton Norfolk North Adams North Andover North Attleboro North Brookfield North Reading Northampton Northborough Northbridge Northfield Norton Norwell Norwood Oak Bluffs Oakham Orange Orleans Otis Oxford Palmer Paxton Peabody Pelham Pembroke Pepperell Peru Petersham Phillipston Pittsfield Plainfield Plainville Plymouth Plympton Princeton Provincetown Quincy Randolph Raynham Reading Rehoboth Revere Richmond Rochester Rockland Rockport Rowe Rowley Royalston Russell Rutland Salem Salisbury Sandisfield Sandwich Saugus Savoy Scituate Seekonk Sharon Sheffield Shelburne Sherborn Shirley Shrewsbury Shutesbury Somerset Somerville South Hadley Southampton Southborough Southbridge Southwick Spencer Springfield Sterling Stockbridge Stoneham Stoughton Stow Sturbridge Sudbury Sunderland Sutton Swampscott Swansea Taunton Templeton Tewksbury Tisbury Tolland Topsfield Townsend Truro Tyngsborough Tyringham Upton Uxbridge Wakefield Wales Walpole Waltham Ware Wareham Warren Warwick Washington Watertown Wayland Webster Wellesley Wellfleet Wendell Wenham West Boylston West Bridgewater West Brookfield West Newbury West Springfield West Stockbridge West Tisbury Westborough Westfield Westford Westhampton Westminster Weston Westport Westwood Weymouth Whately Whitman Wilbraham Williamsburg Williamstown Wilmington Winchendon Winchester Windsor Winthrop Woburn Worcester Worthington Wrentham Yarmouth
Letter
I'm writing to ask that you oppose Senate Bill 1975/House Bill 3385, which would create a special deal for Verizon as it expands its already thriving cable TV business in Massachusetts at the expense of consumers and local communities. If passed, Verizon's bill would take cable franchising authority away from local governments and give this power to the state. Verizon has had nothing but success in signing local franchises in our state, and yet the state legislature is now the fourth place where Verizon's lobbyists have tried to cut this deal: Verizon's campaign for special treatment already has taken the company to Congress, to the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy and to the FCC. But Verizon persists, because it knows it can build better profit margins through legislation like this, which would free Verizon (and not its competitors) from local control and local accountability. So now Verizon is asking you for explicit permission to discriminate between neighborhoods as it builds its network – something local governments have never allowed. Verizon wants you to free it from its current obligations to fund local access television. And most of all, Verizon wants you to tilt the cable TV market in its favor, to spare it from the real competition that exists on the level playing field of today. This legislation would be harmful to consumers like me, because it would: - take away local negotiating power, forcing a cookie-cutter statewide approach to cable licensing that will not reflect the unique needs of local communities; - allow phone companies to provide cable services only where they want, which will translate into less competition and fewer choices for consumers like me down the road; - weaken the state's commitment to the proven and time-honored principle of local control over local rights of way. Verizon's bill may be good for Verizon, but it's bad for the rest of us. You are in a position to protect the interests of consumers – and voters – like me by opposing Verizon's request for special treatment. Verizon is asking for a favor, but I am asking you to act in the interest of the communities that you represent. Please do what you can to help keep cable franchising at the local level, where it belongs. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely,