This is somewhat off topic, but the Green Party U.S. Senate candidate in PA was thrown off the ballot today.

"no one will not invest"

That means people WILL invest in putting out broad band to rural areas.

That's a good thing.

Is this misworded or did I miss something? Please clarify, thanks!

Wow, the baby Bells really don't get blogosphere. Some of the highest traffic blogs in lefty blogosphere come out of PA.

California passed video franchising this session.  I believe the bill, heavily backed by Assembly Speaker Nunez is sitting on Arnold's desk.  AT&T pulled out all of the stops on this one.  They were holding fundraisers for Nunez and even took out full page ads to thank him for his "leadership".

To the best of my knowledge there was no net neutrality language in it.  It would have been a heck of a fight if they tried, given Silicon Valley's location.

Comcast has a near monopoly on cable in Pennsylvania. They raise prices every year regardless of how much or little profit they make.
I would venture to say Comcast is more unpopular than either Rick Santorum or George Bush in the state.

The splintered approach to cable franchising simply has not worked. Philadelphia itself was split into four "franchises" but each different franchise had a monopoly in its territory - at least until Comcast bought all its competitors out. There was no competition then nor is there any now.

It is ridiculously inefficient to ask a cable provider to have a different franchise agreement
with every municipality - no matter how large or tiny. Statewide franchising is a much better idea and the build out requirement is being vigorously debated.

Well I've been asking you guys to Donate to Pa state Democratic candidates in Pa for like 3 months now and you keep ignoring me!!!! If they had real threats that were well funded the republicans wouldn't be fooling around like ths in the Pa state legislature. Especially in the Lehigh valley where we are getting the shaft from the state party, in winnable races.

Russ Shade for pa house 183
    www.russforpa183.com
   http://www.actblue.com/page/russshadepa1 83
Russ is runing against a do nothing inc that has this district tailored for her but it has gone from +6 r to +10 D since the last time someone rand against her

187th District  
    Archie Follweiler
  www.archiepahouse.org
  https:/www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr
is more or less running in an open seat since the republican inc lost in a low turnout primary
against a republican who is more or less has no name rec

134th District    Chris Casey
  www.caseyfor134th.com
https:/secure.actblue.com/contribute/en tity/11089
Hard core Vet Candidate walking hundreds of doors a day in some of the most rural areas in Central eastern pa

I gotta tell ya, I live in Chester County, and I don't have Verizon.  I don't even have a 610 or 484 phone number.  I have 717!  This is because we have Commonwealth Tel, the absolute WORST telephone country in creation.  I had their DSL for a year and a half, and power surges through their ancient phone lines killed 6, yes, 6 modems.  God knows what kind of cable they'd provide. @@

When we moved here two years ago, we tried to keep our 610 phone number, which has been in our family for 50 years.  No luck, even though the person at the end of the block has a 610 number. It really stinks.  My husband has lost gigs because people in town think we live in Lancaster!

I would KILL to have Verizon.   Comcast has been a godsend, we switched to their internet, but they don't have phone in our area yet.  We have to pay the Podunk Phone Company a minimum ransom of $75 a month for 600 minutes.  If you use their DSL, that adds on another $40 because you HAVE to buy another phone number.  Oh, and they don't have unlimited local calls, either.  Pay, pay, pay.  Screw that.

However, Vonage does have phone in our area.  ;)  We switch in two days.... 610 number, and cheap phone bill, here we come!

Thanks to everyone's phone calls, the state House and Senate cancelled their scheduled votes on the Verizon-backed cable franchising legislation.  For now.  The House has rescheduled a vote for October 16th under pressure from Verizon, despite opposition to the bill from consumer groups, local governments, religious leaders and unions.  No word on whether the Senate will take this up before the end of session this November.  

FYI, Verizon has succesfully negotiated franchise agreements with close to 100 municipalities in Pa., all before it even has a product to offer to willing consumers.  In fact, other local goverments have begged Verizon to negotiate agreements with them, only to be rebuffed.  So the argument that the franchise process is a barrier to competition is simply a red-herring to get Verizon out of complying with consumer protections.

Cable competition is indeed good for Pennsylvania consumers, but there's no need to throw away critical consumer protections to get it.