
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 26, 1993                   TAG: 9308260062
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COMPETITIVE-CABLE FIGHT NOT OVER

Rep. Rick Boucher said he will continue to push for legislation to allow telephone companies to provide cable television service, despite a court ruling this week by a U.S. district judge that does much the same thing.

"The decision should serve as a stimulus" for his bill, Boucher said in a statement Wednesday from his Washington office.

The legislation "will also provide appropriate consumer protections and assurance of fair treatment for the telephone industry's cable competitors," he said. "I will continue to seek the passage of such a measure."

Judge T.S. Ellis on Tuesday overruled a provision in the 1984 Cable Act that prevents telephone companies from providing cable TV services in areas where they sell telephone service. Ellis said the provision was unconstitutional and infringed on Bell Atlantic's First Amendment right to free expression.

The ruling came out of a lawsuit by Bell Atlantic Video Services Co. and the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. of Virginia. They filed a lawsuit in December claiming the law violated their right to free speech.

C&P Telephone spokesman Paul T. Miller said he was delighted with the decision.

"It's victory not just for C&P and Bell, but for all" cable and television consumers, he said. "It's a question of choice."

If there is an appeal, Bell Atlantic will "fight it vigorously" he said. Without an appeal, cable programming could be in place in Alexandria - where the suit was filed - this time next year, Miller said.

Boucher, D-Abingdon, said an appeal through the court system could take several years.

It has taken Boucher three tries to get a bill passed that "opens the way for competition in the cable television market." He reintroduced the bill in March.

The legislation would provide telephone companies the certainty that they would be able to offer cable services as a foundation for broader technology.

Miller said his company's cable television would be interactive with the customer in such functions as shopping and ordering movies.

"There is a need for competition," said Gretchen Shine, general manager of Cox Cable Roanoke Inc.

But it would be only fair that cable companies be allowed the right to operate telephone service, she said.

Tuesday's decision "enables Bell to have a monopolistic" capability, because it already has lines "into 98 percent of homes in any community," Shine said. "We just want the same rights."

by CNB