WASHINGTON, D.C. — The TeleCommUnity Alliance, an emerging coalition of cities and counties, is launching a grassroots campaign to preserve local governments’ interests in future federal telecommunications policymaking.

Alliance representatives have met with congressional staff and sent letters today to members of the House and Senate Commerce Committees in which they presented the objectives of the organization and outlined policy priorities in a document called the Local Government Telecommunications Bill of Rights.

“TeleCommUnity does not seek to represent the interests of a single community,” the Alliance told lawmakers. “Rather, it was established to respond proactively to frequent attacks on legitimate local government efforts to protect taxpayers and the property rights of citizens. Such assaults occur regularly on the authority of local governments to zone placement of satellite dishes and cell towers, to manage and receive compensation for the use of public roads and other local government property, to tax telecommunications businesses and facilities, and to protect cable television subscribers.”

Specifically, TeleCommUnity is calling upon Congress to affirm the following principles:

• Local governments must retain authority to manage public rights of way (PROW) and obtain fair and reasonable compensation for the public when private enterprise uses and occupies public rights of way.
  
  

• Local governments must retain authority to enforce customer service and consumer protection laws and regulations, to ensure that broadband deployment does not harm public rights of way, and to promote broadband deployment to our communities.
  
  

• Wireless public safety communications networks need adequate spectrum allocation and funding to overcome interference and interoperability problems.
  
  

• Local governments’ integral partnership role in providing homeland security measures must be respected. “This year, the telecommunications industry is conducting an all-out offensive to deny local governments the right to manage and be reasonably compensated for access to public rights of way,” TeleCommUnity said in its letter. “Too many communities have been seriously damaged by uncontrolled construction of new telecommunications systems, in some cases causing floods, gas line explosions, cut communications lines, auto accidents and pedestrian injuries.”

“Local governments must be able to guarantee the safety of their communities and hold individuals responsible for the harm they cause,” the Alliance added. “Only local governments can get this problem under control, and the federal government must support local elected officials who act aggressively to protect their citizens.

The Alliance said communities also must have the right to protect local taxpayers from unwilling subsidization of private telecommunications companies and their construction projects. State and local governments have $1.3 trillion in undepreciated improvements in rights of way. When the land itself is added, the total right-of-way asset exceeds $7.1 trillion in value.

“Local rights of way are precious and scarce public resources,” TeleCommUnity said. “Fair prices will assure that they are used as necessary and desired.”

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