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To: ahhaha who wrote (3413)	12/16/1998 12:02:00 PM
From: ERM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

I'm not sure I follow. Right now, you or I could apply for a cable franchise in any city in the country. Moreover, assuming we met some baseline criteria (i.e. financial and technical capabilities) the local franchising authority would, under federal law, have to grant us the franchise. We do not need to apply or receive permission from anyone else other than the local franchising authority. In fact, as you are surely aware, there are several areas of the country which have more than one franchised cable operator. However, in those areas, both operators are generally running unprofitable businesses. That is the reason there exists the monopoly you refer to. Seems to me this is much more a case of the market dictating the single operator paradigm rather than the government.