Consumers for Cable Choice (C4CC) has been issuing a series of press releases calling for residents of specific states to call their Senators to back a proposed bill, already passed by the House.
The organization says the competition that the bill will foster will:
* Speed entry of competing cable companies;
* Limit government-imposed fees that are passed on to cable subscribers;
* Limit service cancellation fees to one month;
* Require cable operators to pay their subscribers $100 when the operator violates consumer protection or customer service rules;
* And expand high-speed communications services to rural America by creating a half-billion dollar annual broadband fund to speed rural deployment and stabilize the Universal Service Fund.
The most recent C4CC release targets New Mexico residents, urging them to call their Senators, Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici. Previously, the organization has targeted Senators in Tennessee and New York.
The president of C4CC, Bob Johnson, is a lawyer who represents a number of telephone companies. The organization has received significant funding from Verizon.