SubscribeThis Wednesday morning, May 6th at 10:00am, the Public Utilities Committee is meeting in Room 1228 of the Legislative building on Jones St. in Raleigh to vote on HB 1252. HB 1252 is the “Level Playing Field” bill, sponsored by Rep. Ty Harrell (D-Wake County), that would forever tie the hands of municipalities from ever offering better, faster and cheaper broadband Internet for their residents. The city of Wilson already offers such a service called Greenlight. After looking at what they offer for speeds and pricing, it will be understandable if you need a few moments for the anger over what you pay the “other guys” to dissipate and for your composure to return.
I am assembling a small army of outraged consumers across North Carolina to attend this critically important meeting and make our views known about HB 1252, which at its core screams anti-competition. Everyone in North Carolina who cares about the cap issue, metered pricing, or municipal broadband needs to attend this meeting and show our feelings. Municipal broadband is the safety valve we need to combat usage caps, price gouging, and rationed Internet.
Don’t be the hamster on the wheel spinning around and around in the cage current providers have constructed for our broadband service. We deserve better, and we can make a difference! Cable and telephone providers refuse to make the upgrades we demand and deserve. Without competition, why spend the money to upgrade? Let them get away with this, and you can be assured of slow speeds and bad service indefinitely.
Make an investment in yourself and your community and come to Raleigh this Wednesday morning. Let’s demonstrate once again that organized consumers do not have to sit back and simply take what they give us.
When: Wednesday, May 6 10:00AM
Where: North Carolina Legislature Building, 16 West Jones Street, Raleigh (Here is a Google map of the area.) Room 1228
Additional Information: Be sure to follow any comments left on this article for last minute updates/information. There is also a Facebook Group to oppose this bill and get late-breaking news and developments.
Jay Ovittore lives in North Carolina and is coordinating a pushback against corporate sponsored protection bills like HB 1252 and SB 1004 in the state legislature.
Other stories of interest:
- Action Alert: North Carolina, Get Writing Now for Municipal Broadband Protection!
- Call to Action: Push Poll Scam – Hang Up on the Pro-Cable/Telco Poll Calls in North Carolina!
- Wilson, North Carolina Builds Its Own Municipal Fiber Optic System When Others Didn’t Step Up
- Action Alert: North Carolina Anti-Municipal Broadband Bill Moved to House Utility Committee
- Welcome to North Carolina Week!
You know I have not seen many complain about speed on Stop the Cap. What I have seen is plenty of tier usage, caps, and rationed Internet complaints. Except one user that did not like the idea of a 2 year contract for 250K up and down now 1 to 2 gig and that is on a dry day. I think back to the story of the 12” water line once feeding 20 houses now feeding 70 houses. I wonder if the pipe stayed the same size what would actually happen with bits vs. something more real like water. The interned is very redundant when it comes to that sort of thing. What comes into the pipe from one side can come in from the other side also. Connection traces are so fun to watch. On a bad day you may be trying to reach a friend in Calif. And watch it jump through Japan to get there. So my question is with a desire for comment what would happen? This is legit comment as it would tell me what TWC infrastructures need upgrades and why the price for those improvements is dropping. Water is much more dense then electrons so im not convinced of their arguments and I will still say if they stopped logging, shaping packets, monitoring everything, and what ever else they do and just provide a connection they could cut their costs by 3/4. Just send the bits from point A to point B.
The internet is very redundant Sorry brain fart