FCC & AT&T and TV

FCC eases way for telephone companies to offer TV.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a plan on Wednesday, December 20, to shorten the time it takes for companies like AT&T and Verizon Communications to get into the subscription television business. The FCC approved by a 3_2 vote a plan limiting local authorities to 90 days to act on applications by new television providers which already have
access to city land to run connections, and 180 days for new entrants to cities and towns. AT&T and Verizon have complained that the process to get licenses from local authorities is too cumbersome and time_consuming. They tried to get similar relief from Congress but lawmakers failed to pass legislation this year. The telephone carriers see offering television as a
necessary component to their bundle of communications services to better compete against cable operators, which now offer their own telephone and high_speed Internet services.
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2075131,00.asp