North Carolina bill would prohibit cities from upgrading Internet access

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story
By Stephen C. Webster

The Republican-dominated North Carolina State Assembly this week approved a bill that would prohibit communities from upgrading their internet access, forcing individual municipalities into a private monopoly of managed broadband services by companies like Time Warner and Comcast.

Both firms have been restricting the amount of bandwidth users can consume, even though bandwidth itself is not a tangible, meter-able commodity.

The bill, which was heavily supported by telecom giant Time Warner, comes on the heels of several communities successfully launching their own fiber-optic broadband programs. One program in Wilson, North Carolina, called Greenlight, even features speeds up to 100 Megabits-per-second (Mbps) at a lower price than its corporate competitors.

Read More at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/30/north-carolina-bill-would-prohibit-cities-from-upgrading-internet-access/

[Initech]

1. Once again, big business wins, we get screwed.

:grr: :mad: :grr: :mad:

[nc4bo]

2. And the jackass teabaggers continue to make more madness that others have to live with. nt

[Initech]

7. We need to keep pointing out that the tea party are just the unpaid mouthpieces of billionaires.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Any way this can be struck down in court?

If not, then it needs to be a major campaign issue to vote the scums out of office.

[Armstead]

4. We are setting ourselves for a fall -- with the help of both parties

On one hand we are being made more and more dependent on the Internet and broadband access.

AND YET we are simultaneously giving the monopolistic access providers more and more power to gouge us with new uage fees and limits.

One expect the GOP to support the piggy providers.

AND YET despite President Obama's fine words, there is little will (or is it willingness) to actually place this vital commodity under tighter regulation by the DEmocrats. It continues to Be a non-issue in the public sphere.

[marmar]

5. The Corporate Fascist State is tres chic these days in America.

nt

[KamaAina]

6. So I guess they're not really interested in creating jobs in the Research Triangle

:eyes:

[DisgustipatedinCA]

8. small correction

While I completely agree with the thrust of the story, and the NC state assembly is acting like typical Republicans, it's not a true statement that bandwidth is not a meterable commodity. Bandwidth is metered all the time for billing purposes.