Rights-of-Way Access Fees Flout Cable Act Limits, NCTA Says

State fees on cable operators for access to public rights of way (ROW), atop the 5 percent franchise fee already imposed by local franchising authorities, means less money available for broadband deployment, NCTA said in an FCC docket 05-311 posting Monday. It said the Cable Act allows the franchise fee to be charged only for ROW access. It's also a violation of the act when franchising authorities or other government entities levy what they call "taxes" atop the cap because those are "essentially a duplicate franchise fee" just labeled a tax, it said.