Paul Kapustka's Blog

(It's frightening to think that I might be getting addicted to these commerce committe webcasts, and the charm of listening to Ted Stevens sputter on about why Alaska is a worse place to live than India -- more later on this -- crammed into a poorly focused RealMedia window.)

Maybe what would scare me off is more Daniel Inouye! But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The point, the point: The committee had Big Ed and Slick Ivan in their house -- and didn't do a damn thing about it. Even VoIP champion John Sununu bailed, with a weak question about "how would you ensure consumer protection?" that Ivan answered blandly for both he and Ed, with a little just-us-folks chuckling between the two of them.

The only panelist who tried to turn up the heat was Public Knowledge president Gigi Sohn, who put a twist on her support for a national franchising setup -- she was all for it, as long as the "new entrants" -- and by here we mean Verizon and AT&T -- keep their networks neutral, and open to all providers of video.

Response, from anyone? Zip. Zero. It was like last week's hearing never happened.

So... no smackdown. You could easily substitute the Warren Communications report from last week's FCC meeting in Keller, Texas, for Wednesday's hearing, and it would work:

BROADBAND SUFFERS WITHOUT REFORM of video franchise rules, AT&T, others tell FCC. Cable says process works.

There were some jabs, but they were few and far between... Gene Kimmelmann, senior director for public policy at the Consumers Union, got laughs by noting that "I've heard more praise today for local franchising [from the cable companies]than at any time in the last 20 years." Tom Rutledge, chief operating officer at Cablevision, seemed like he had a pulse when he frothed about the fact that the telcos haven't even tried to obtain franchises, but instead have focused their efforts on trying to change the laws.

"The only thing slowing down Verizon is Verizon, and the only thing slowing down AT&T is AT&T," Rutledge said. But later during questioning, Stevens seemed perturbed at Rutledge's very presence, and cut him off when Rutledge trotted out the standard cable reply of "well, we've spent a $100 billion and telcos have spent..."

(Here, we agree with the Senator from Alaska. Enough, cableheads, about your 100 billion. We all know you spent a lot of dough, OK? Let's move on.)

Parting shots -- to Ted Stevens, the "spend some time in India" award, for wondering aloud (and on the record) about why hotel-reservation phone-answering jobs are going to India, and not to rural Alaska. (Did you know Ted Stevens was from Alaska? And that it's a state as big as several European countries, plus Don King's hairdo?)

According to Stevens, citizens in India have "a quality of life we're not enjoying," referencing the fact that there are 100 villages in Alaska that don't have Internet access. Memo to Christine Kurth: Time to let the Senator know that not all of India has broadband access. And India's big too! Just like Alaska! Except without million-dollar bridges.

Sorry! Cheap shot award to myself.

Spotted in the background props to: Christine Kurth; Michael "no Google for me" Sully Sullivan; and James Assey. Please pick up your hostess gifts on the way out.