Telecom Giants Seek to Eliminate Local Oversight of Networks

Published in The Michigan Citizen

Through a series of political actions on the local, state and federal levels, US telecommunications companies seek to radically remake the country’s regulatory infrastructure. Regional phone and cable companies would like to provide television, Internet and voice communications on a national scale, but they claim they are constrained by current laws.

As written, the bills that they are sponsoring throughout the nation would provide the telecom giants with unprecedented power to grant or deny access, control Internet content, increase prices and greatly reduce payments to local municipalities.