22 Quotes by Jeannine Kenney

Rather than provide for meaningful protections to ensure that large cable and telecommunications companies don't use their network ownership to impede competition, the bill strips the Federal Communications Commission of its authority to establish meaningful rules to protect consumers from these discriminatory practices.

On top of that, they're making the coupons available at the beginning of 2008, a year before the transition even occurs, and they're only making them available for three months.

A second question is, will consumers be likely, even if there is education about what the government is conducting, will they even be likely to know what's coming and that they're eligible for this voucher? The answer is probably not.

This is a bad idea from the consumer standpoint. If vendors now feel they have to pay a fee, that cost will ultimately be passed on to the consumer.

There needs to be an explicit prohibition on discriminatory pricing.

It's just not like the transition from VCRs to DVD players, where consumers could slowly adopt the technology over time as the prices came down and the values improved. That's not happening here.

Consumers should praise FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Senator John McCain for striking at the heart of the cable industry's flawed pricing scheme which forces consumers to buy packages of television channels they don't want and shouldn't have to pay for. Today's action kick starts the national effort to give consumers' wallets a break and allow them more control over their television programming choices and cable bills.

Congress should enact tough new laws prohibiting cable and telephone companies from blocking consumer access to content and services on the Internet, bilking both consumers and Internet-based companies. If they don't, these big companies will use their market power to line their pockets by discriminating against competitors in favor of their own content and service offerings.

That's one issue that people haven't really recognized. This isn't about helping people upgrade technology. It's just about keeping what you have working when it stops working not through any fault of the electronics or the consumer, but through a government action.