Telecom-Funded North Carolina House Votes To Gut Cheap And Fast Public Broadband

[tpsbmam]

These people have absolutely no shame. And here, I include the turncoat Democrats in the NC House along with the ReTHUGlicans.

State by state, federally and locally, they're fucking handing everything over to the corporations with absolutely no shame or subterfuge. They're doing it in-your-face-fuck-you style.

From Think Progress:

The mantra of the modern conservative movement in the United States is that the government isn’t capable of doing anything as well as the private sector. This idea is constantly perpetuated among conservative intelligentsia and as a rallying cry by conservative politicians.

Yet conservative ideology can’t explain the success of Wilson, North Carolina’s, Greenlight fiber optic broadband service. In 2008, Wilson decided that all of its residents deserve access to affordable broadband service and shouldn’t have to put up with a private monopoly. So it established its own broadband service called Greenlight, which offered speeds more than twice as fast as private competitors for a similar price. Soon, Greenlight’s success spread, as several other municipalities in the state started their own public broadband services, giving residents a public option that was cheaper and more effective than the private monopolies.

But the state’s primarily broadband monopoly, Time Warner, decided that consumers shouldn’t have this option. It organized with the other telecoms, and the sector donated over $600,000 to politicians in the state over the last election cycle. And on Monday, every single Republican in the state house along with 15 Democrats voted for a bill that severely restricts the ability of municipalities to operate their own broadband networks, including a provision that disallows them from offering services at below cost — essentially eliminating their ability to provide affordable rates to residents.....

I truly wish I believed in heaven and hell because hell would be overflowing with ReTHUGlicans and their complicit Democrats!



:grr:

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Coming soon to many states near you........

We need a master list of all the destruction state legislatures are doing.

[underpants]

2. A few years ago I read that the US has internet 12 x slower and 3 x more expensive than Europe

I don't know if that is still true but it wouldn't surprise me

[highplainsdem]

3. This is directly from ALEC, as I explained in my reply in an earlier topic about this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x772902

See reply 3 there, which explains the history of this legislation.

[snot]

4. K&R'd!

[lildreamer316]

5. Email just sent to the Committee Chairperson.

I don't know that it will do a lick of good,but you gotta do something, right?

[Selatius]

6. It's like a replay over the battle of the Public Option, only with broadband and not health care. nt

[Drew Richards]

7. Simple solution

I left this area 4 years ago and I see nothing has changed RR Time Warner are still d*&^s.

There is a simple solution to this problem but I don't want to get involved in Carolina politics...So you are welcome to forward this suggestion to anyone that is in Governance presently...

All they have to do is "sell" the service to a private contractor under a 20 year state variance, same as is done for nuclear power plants...state or county still owns it for the 20 year contract, but a private individual or company runs it... set the service up as an LLC OR an S-corp, incorporate the government service and still charge a lower rate...This will screw the Monopoly and still give the local government cheap internet services and equity.

They cannot cry if it is listed as a private LLC or an S-Corp no matter who in reality runs it or gains a division of profits from it...LLC's and S-Corp's are a Horrible thing in the hands of corporation like Exxon, Chase, Bank of America who game the system and pay no taxes..if you don't know an s-corp is supposed to be for "SMALL BUSINESS" but these big boys use it to full advantage...

So the area gets cheaper INTERNET and gains a small income from the services.

See, this is playing THEIR game...it is the only way you can win against these Monsters.