If you can’t beat em … sue ’em

So reports the San Antonio Business Journal:

The Texas Cable and Telecommunications Association filed a lawsuit — this time in state district court — to challenge a state telecommunications law that allows telephone companies to apply for a statewide franchise license to offer television services.

Why, you might ask, is the cable monopoly asking the court to overturn telecom reforms enacted through democratic means? The cynic in me says that they want to wall in their customers from increased competition, giving them leeway to keep rates sky-high. This is how it used to be in Texas, lest anybody forgets. Legally, they are suing because:

“SB 5 violates the Texas Constitution because it grants special favors to telephone companies and other new video providers while forcing cable companies to operate at a disadvantage,”

This is utterly false. Cable companies can forgo onerous municipal franchises, just like phone. And in a few years, when their local franchises expire, that is exactly what they will do. In the meanwhile, Texans should reject litigious tactics because, as the article notes,

San Antonio-based AT&T is investing $800 million in Texas in order to offer consumers voice, high-speed Internet and television over a fiber-optic network. Company officials are making this investment as part of its national $4 billion Project Lightspeed buildout.

Big cable needs to stop complanin’ and start competin’!