Business Notes

Cable-TV operators know all about static, but this was something else again. More than 600 local government officials sent a letter to every member of Congress denouncing the cable industry's "monopoly market power" and urging support for legislation that would reform the 1984 law partly deregulating cable TV.

Timed to coincide with this week's Senate Commerce Committee hearings on proposals to extend government control over the cable industry, the letter bitterly criticized signal quality, response to service requests and "dramatic" rate increases. "Under the current statutory framework, we lack the authority to address many of these complaints," said the signers, led by Mayors Sharpe James of Newark, Maynard Jackson of Atlanta and Raymond Flynn of Boston.

An industry spokesman dismissed the letter as "much ado about nothing" and implied that the officials are seeking more power, not better service. In cable's corner is the White House, which opposes reregulation of cable, hoping instead to address consumer complaints through the Federal Communications Commission.