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Gov. Purdue: I Was for More Competition Before I Was Against It
Democratic Gov. Bev Purdue from North Carolina has managed to twist her logic into quite a pretzel over two statements from her office in the past two weeks. On the community broadband front, Purdue protested legislation to reduce competitive choices in broadband in her state (all underlining ours):
May 20, 2011:
“My concern with House Bill 129 is that the restrictions the General Assembly has imposed on cities and towns who want to offer broadband services may have the effect of decreasing the number of choices available to their citizens. For these reasons, I will neither sign nor veto this bill. Instead, I call on the General Assembly to revisit this issue and adopt rules that not only promote fairness but also allow for the greatest number of high quality and affordable broadband options for consumers.”
Just 11 days later, Purdue inferred the exact opposite in her letter of support for the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, which will reduce most of North Carolina to choosing among AT&T, Verizon, and in some cases Sprint. One of her reasons? The city of Raleigh is getting a new area code:
May 31, 2011:
The proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile presents another development in the marketplace which can benefit the people of my state.
The communications market in North Carolina, particularly in the wireless arena, is dynamic. Recently, the NC Utilities Commission announced the Raleigh area will soon implement a new area code, the eighth in the state, due primarily to the tremendous growth in wireless service.
In North Carolina we are committed to stimulating investments in advanced technology, and encourage quality service for the public. We look forward to working closely with AT&T to foster these important goals.
On behalf of the people of North Carolina, I appreciate your strong consideration in favor of the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile.
Allow AT&T and T-Mobile to merge because Raleigh needs a new area code, proving wireless growth. That may account among the most novel of all reasons to support a merger that will further reduce competition in the wireless market.
Okay, first off, she looks almost exactly like Florence Henderson, which makes me feel really bad to talk badly about her. Despite that, I’m afraid that with the recently FCC/Comcast/NBC debacle, that many politicians are going to continually put their support with any company trying to merge with the hope that they will be offered a position in the company once it goes through…
I don’t see how mergers give you “more competition”.
No wonder she let the “level Playing Field/F*** the Consumer” bill pass. This woman has no clue.
I am ashamed to say I live in NC when I see things like this.
Everything in state wide politics in NC is about what’s best for Raleigh. Always has been.