Big carriers go political to kill local broadband

[Renew Deal]

Major telcos are afraid that locally owned FTTH deployments will cut into their fat profits, so they seek to cripple competitors

When Time Warner and Embarq (now named CenturyLink) couldn't provide affordable, high-speed broadband, the residents of Wilson, a small town in North Carolina, decided to do it themselves. In 2006, Wilson built a municipally owned fiber-to-the home network that offers television, telephone, and broadband services at relatively low cost.

In response, Time Warner cut rates and boosted speeds a bit -- but that's not all. The cable giant, along with allies AT&T and CenturyLink, poured more than $1 million into the campaign coffers of North Carolina politicians, according to a report by Common Cause and the ILSR (Institute for Local Self Reliance). In 2011, the lobbying effort paid off: The state legislature passed a bill making it nearly impossible for other communities to build their own broadband networks.

North Carolina is hardly alone; 18 other states also have yielded to lobbying efforts by cable and telecom giants and passed similar legislation. The legislature of a 20th state, Kansas, is currently debating a law that would squelch local broadband projects there as well. And there's a bill pending in the Utah state legislature that would forbid a regional fiber consortium from expanding beyond the 16 cities it is currently authorized to serve with FTTH (fiber to the home) networks.
<snip>

The carriers' lobbying pays off
As reported by Ars Technica, Kansas is now considering a law restraining the development of municipal broadband that would be even more draconian than most of the ones already on the books in other states.
<snip>

http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/big-carriers-go-political-kill-local-broadband-235797

[Cha]

1. Yeah, I got a second to Kick this!

thanks RD.

[alittlelark]

2. KnR

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. The invisible hand of the free market is choking the fuck out of us.

[Lasher]

4. I thought I smelled ALEC

A growing number of municipalities are answering “yes” by building their own networks and offering broadband services to their citizens. ALEC disagrees with their answer due to the negative impacts it has on free markets and limited government.

http://www.alec.org/task-forces/telecommunications-and-information-technology/municipal-broadband/

Their reach is surely more pervasive than we know, and we need to come up with a way to fight them.

If everything is always done more efficiently in the private sector as these economic neoliberals claim, then why are they so afraid of this competition by municipalities? What kind of "free markets" are promoted by laws that ensure Big Carriers will have monopolies?

[Wounded Bear]

5. K & R..nt

[kelliekat44]

6. Why don't the Dems take advantage of this to pump up the base and even get new voters?

Or are the Dems also so deeply controlled that they won't put up a decent fight. I put up a link to a really good discussion on this but I doubt that many here listened to the program. Still it was one of the best discussions about this issue. I'll repost link.


This is a MUST if you want to know how Net Neutrality/FCC and the impact of the latest ruling.


http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/ (Feb 6)

[Scuba]

8. Democratic leadership has been usurped by the right.

[Eleanors38]

9. The Democratic Party is a rusty freighter, beached on a Pacific atoll.

In other words, THERE IS NO OPPOSITION.

[Enthusiast]

11. +1 a whole bunch.......nt

[newfie11]

7. When we lived in the Nebraska Panhandle our internet was off cell towers

We had no landline phone ( just cells) and broadband was and still is a dream.
Vistabeam is the company and he has expanded into Wyoming.
We had great service.

[Enthusiast]

10. This is just plain wrong!

Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?

[reusrename]

12. The main thing that separates conservatives and liberals is basically this, afaict:

Conservatives believe that when the government takes over control of the corporations you end up with fascism.

Liberals believe that when the corporations take over control of the government you end up with fascism.

I think Mussolini had it right and fascism is when the two work together hand-in-hand. So am I a liberal or a conservative?

[BelgianMadCow]

13. Smells like ALEC

or some similar effort. There's gonna be resistance like this every step of the way - we better hunker down for a long fight.