The telecommunications measure that would have enabled phone companies to obtain a single statewide franchise license instead of many municipality agreements to enable delivery of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) died in the Legislature Saturday night after all-night negotiations failed to break an impasse between the House and Senate.

"It's over; it's over," Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, the chief advocate of the proposal, said Saturday night realizing that the legislation would not reach the House before the midnight deadline.

"The problem is, we are out of time," said Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, who led Senate opposition to the plan.

SBC Communications and Verizon Communications were the leading advocates of the proposal. SBC is one of the most powerful lobby forces in the Legislature, thus the failure of this proposal is a rare defeat. The company's chief executive, Ed Whitacre, personally visited the Capitol this week to push for the measure, King and Fraser said.

"This evening, time ran out on a visionary concept" for a statewide franchise for video services, said Jan Newton, president of SBC Texas. She said the concept would have created more choices for consumers.

"Competition for video services will occur much slower without a statewide video franchise," Steve Banta, president of the Southwest region for Verizon, said in a statement. "We regret Texas lawmakers did not have enough time to reach a compromise."

The cable industry and Texas cities joined forces to fight the proposal. Cable companies said the measure was written to favor SBC. Cities said the plan would cost them millions of dollars a year in revenue.

King said his measure would have created new competition for cable companies and attracted jobs and "billions of dollars" worth of new investment, as SBC and other companies upgraded their networks and infrastructure to provide new services.

You can read more about the bill in our previous article, "Phone Companies Win Fight To Provide IPTV ".