The Order addresses several ways by which local franchising authorities are unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises. These include drawn-out local negotiations with no time limits; unreasonable build-out requirements; unreasonable requests for “in-kind” payments that attempt to subvert the five percent cap on franchise fees; and unreasonable demands with respect to public, educational and government access (or “PEG”).

To eliminate the unreasonable barriers to entry into the cable market, and to encourage investment in broadband facilities, the Commission:

Found that franchising negotiations that extend beyond certain time frames amount to an unreasonable refusal to award a competitive franchise within the meaning of Section 621(a)(1);

Found that requiring an applicant to agree to unreasonable build-out requirements constitutes an unreasonable refusal to award a competitive franchise;

Found that, unless certain specified costs, fees, and other compensation required by local franchising authorities are counted toward the statutory five percent cap on franchise fees, demanding them could result in an unreasonable refusal to award a competitive franchise;

Found that it would be an unreasonable refusal to award a competitive franchise if the local franchising authority denied an application based on a new entrant’s refusal to undertake certain unreasonable obligations relating to public, educational, and governmental (“PEG”) and institutional networks (“I-Nets”); and

Preempted local laws, regulations, and requirements, including local level-playing-field provisions, to the extent they impose greater restrictions on market entry than the rules adopted herein.

The Commission concluded that although the record allows it to determine generally what constitutes an “unreasonable refusal to award an additional competitive franchise” at the local level, the Commission does not have sufficient information to make such determinations with respect to franchising decisions made at the state level or in compliance with state statutory directives, such as statewide franchising decisions. As a result, the Order addresses only decisions made by county- or municipal-level franchising authorities.

said by systems2000 :

ROI's are very important to a company, it's what stock holders demand. I don't have a problem with companies having some sort of ROI, it's just when they want the ROI to be less than five or ten years for large, long-term, and permanent projects.

said by Yowzaaah :

That's like finding out you have Herpes and saying,"...well you still might get genital warts."

Not so much comforting and a shot at salvation as it is a chance for things to go from bad to REALLY bad.

said by ricep5 :

a farmer on a Georgia city council getting a load of free fertilizer, it was starting to get out of hand. (go google it)

said by TKJunkMail :

The actual rule changes are relatively few and can be found in Appendix B of this document: »hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/a···80A1.pdf
and that is pages 79 and 80 of the document.