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Second Victory in North Carolina: S1004 Dumped to “Study Committee”

Phillip Dampier May 7, 2009 Community Networks, Public Policy & Gov't 13 Comments

The companion bill in the North Carolina Senate that would have effectively killed municipal networks across the state has gone the way of the House bill HB 1252 — into the black hole of the “study committee.”  While the issue may yet re-emerge after it “has been studied,” it’s dead for now.  Thank you to everyone in North Carolina who responded with an outpouring of calls and e-mails to elected officials in the Senate after big cable tried a sneak attack to ram this through this morning.

This is your third victory for consumer rights in less than a month.  We’re on a roll!

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Brad Lambert
Brad Lambert
14 years ago

I would like to say thank you to this website. I live in Virginia, but can’t stand it when big business sticks it to the “little guy”. With this site, I can stay informed (in the unlikely event that this will happen to my town [we have Comcast Cable and Verizon FIOS here]) with everything that is happening. Keep up the good work and keep fighting the good fight.

Vish
Vish
14 years ago

I’m an NC resident.

Can we get a list of NC legislators and how they voted or whatever they did to these 2 bills? When the next election comes, I want to know who supported these things.

Oscar@SA
Oscar@SA
14 years ago
Reply to  Vish

I’m sure that can be dug out from somewhere.. We can also thank those that sent this bill to the “study committee”. I hope it dies there.

Mark Turner
14 years ago
Reply to  Vish

Every vote in these committees was a voice vote, so no records exist of how a legislator voted. However, the bills’ sponsors are listed on the NCGA website.

Note that not all legislators who agreed to sponsor the bills necessarily maintained their support for the bills. On the other hand, some enthusiastically supported them. They are the ones where you should focus your efforts.

Tim
Tim
14 years ago

Good job people!!

I think this is what you might want. Sponsors of the House Bill

Sponsors
Primary: Harrell; Jones; Avila; Tillis;
Co: Bell; Cole; Crawford; Current; Dollar; Earle; Guice; Gulley; Hilton; Holliman; Johnson; Justus; Lucas; Neumann; Sager; Steen;

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2009&BillID=H1252

Sponsors of Senate Bill

Sponsors
Primary: David W. Hoyle;
Co: Debbie A. Clary;

https://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2009&BillID=S1004

Or at least started this whole thing. Might have to do some digging to find how people fell on a side.

T.M.
T.M.
14 years ago

Congrats to the NC folks. Glad to see you won these two battles. TWC stirred up the hornets nest and the cable industry might discover that their party is over before it’s all said and done.

If we all stay vigilant and active the industry will be forced to come around.

Meredith P
Meredith P
14 years ago

And I need to thank TWC for “educating me”. 🙂 If they hadn’t tried to roll-out the cap, I wouldn’t have been paying attention and heard about the anti-municpal broadband bill in our legislature.

Chris
Chris
14 years ago

My guess is that TWC will try to get revenge on us North Carolinians but the door remains open for municipal telecommunications service so I suppose it will be at their own peril.

By the way, who would you contact in your city government to push the idea of municipal service similar to Greenlight?

Daniel
Daniel
14 years ago

I sent a bunch of emails (28) out to the committee this morning. I received one reply.

I wrote about my email and the response on my blog: http://bit.ly/7EF3I

Thanks for the list of click-able email addresses! They were a big time saver.

jr
jr
14 years ago

stopthecap.com gets results

Josh Beck
Josh Beck
14 years ago

Phil, you are a force to be reckoned with!

Way to pull the community together!

Thanks,
Josh Beck

Katieb
Katieb
14 years ago

If you want to get your community interested in building its own community broadband system, let your Town Manager, Council or Mayor know. There is federal stimulus broadband money ($7 billion) dedicated just to this purpose. For more information you can contact SEATOA too at [email protected]

JM
JM
14 years ago

Good work, citizens of North Carolina! And yes I suppose that the TWC “education campaign” is partly to be thanked for getting people to pay attention to this website. 😉

Municipal broadband is one way of many that the U.S. can promote wider access to broadband Internet and therefore stay competitive on the global stage.

Thank you Phil for hosting this blog – keep on keepin’ on (and keep up the vigilance)!

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