Stern said the Bell Operating Companies want to get into the cable television business and are lobbying state governments, already proving successful in Texas and Indiana.

Now they are heavily lobbying Congress and, as of last week, were successful and there has been a draft agreement for ICRC to go to national franchising. Right now, communities have the ability to enter into a contract with companies like Time Warner Cable. Federal franchising would take that ability away and take it out of the community's hands.

The ICRC filed an FCC filing on behalf of all communities so that local communities don’t lose the aspect of local franchising.

"If ICRC loses the ability to have local control, and a cable provider tears up your street putting in new lines, you might have to wait for federal assistance to repair the streets," Stern said. " In this community, trees are very important and you have provisions in your local contract for your trees. With federal franchising, you may not have that. It may be that local franchises might be grandfathered."

The contract with Time Warner expires in 2009. If ICRC sees that the national franchise has any grandfather clause, the ICRC might come to the village and advise to extend the franchise to take advantage of the grandfather clause.

Councilmember Bill Ebelhar asked if the ICRC only controls the basic tier and not other program tiers. Stern said that they can regulate basic tier and equipment costs, but cannot regulate HBO or other digital tiers. She said they can monitor Time Warner to make sure they are meeting guidelines. They audit the cable companies about every ten years.

Councilmember Rex Bevis said he had heard there might be opportunities with the cable companies to be able to pick and choose which channels you want. Stern said it is called a la carte programming and there is legislation pending that would offer that kind of programming. Bevis asked if that is something the federal franchising might bring to the village, Stern said that is a possibility but it is important to make sure local communities have some control.

One good thing about the state franchising is that it would bring competition. Bevis asked if there might be a situation then where you would have two or more providers offering service in one community and Stern said that could happen.