The Issue: What's at Stake

Our ability to decide for ourselves how cable television service is provided in our own neighborhoods is being threatened.

Local control over public access channels, rights of way, and equal access are in jeopardy thanks to phone companies’ attempts to change the rules. They want to exclude you and your neighbors from the process. They’re seeking special deals in Congress and in State Legislatures all over the country that would allow them to ignore our input and our concerns. Tell them we don’t want that here in Massachusetts – We’re proud of our local control tradition.

Massachusetts has a long history of home rule and local control. The ability for a community to choose for itself was the basis for founding of the Commonwealth. No two communities are exactly the same – and no one knows that better than you, your neighbors and your local officials. But the phone companies’ plan will force every town to accept a one-size-fits-all program. It will cost Massachusetts consumers far more than they get in return and squeeze out blue-collar towns. It’s not right and it’s not fair.