Back in 2006, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens emphatically declared that the Internet was not a truck, but rather a series of tubes. That’s why Net Neutrality was such a bad idea, get it?
[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Senator Ted Stevens on Net Neutrality.mp4[/flv]
Senator Ted Stevens Infamous “Series of Tubes” Speech from 2006. (11 minutes)
Fundamentally misunderstanding technology and the Internet is not exclusively the domain of an ex-senator from the State of Palin, however.
North Carolina State Senator David Hoyle (D-Gaston County) managed to illustrate he didn’t know what he was talking about either.
Hoyle’s pretzel-like logic, in opposing municipal fiber broadband projects in the state, is that fiber optics could be obsolete within five years, so we shouldn’t even bother with them:
“You know the technology’s changing daily. Five years, ten years from now … wireless could replace most of fiber optics of coaxial cable or, or copper even. Might become not totally obsolete, but their ability to, uh, you know, to fund the debt service from the hard assets they had to put into the ground.”
If one extends that reasoning to his good friends in the cable and telephone industry — if fiber is potentially obsolete in five years, what about the phone company’s copper wires and the cable company’s coax? Copper wiring was used for telegraphy starting in the 1830s and is still the backbone of today’s telephone networks. Coaxial cable was invented in 1880 and still runs into virtually every cable subscriber’s home. The first commercial application for a fiber optic communications system came in 1977. In fact, most experts believe fiber optics will be the platform for America’s telecommunications network for at least the next quarter century. The cable industry promotes its own use of fiber, and forward thinking phone companies like Verizon are relying on fiber to the home networks to stay relevant for the future.
Sen. David Hoyle (D-NC)
Fiber optic has all of the advantages:
• SPEED: Fiber optic networks operate at high speeds – up into the gigabits and still rising
• BANDWIDTH: large carrying capacity, and growing larger as advances continue
• DISTANCE: Signals can be transmitted further without needing to be “refreshed” or strengthened.
• RESISTANCE: Greater resistance to electromagnetic noise such as radios, motors or other nearby cables.
• MAINTENANCE: Fiber optic cables costs much less to maintain, and upgrades can occur without disturbing existing cable — just switch the laser technology used.
The costs to construct fiber networks, which used to be in the thousands of dollars per household, is now well under $1,000 for companies like Verizon. Keeping happy customers and having the ability to market phone, broadband, and television services across an all-fiber network open new revenue streams which help defray initial expenses. Fiber is an investment in the future.
Why isn’t wireless going to make fiber networks obsolete?
Allocating sufficient spectrum to support today’s high bandwidth applications is a practical impossibility, especially considering the politics and in-fighting from current spectrum holders to keep their allocations. Spectrum is a limited resource, which guarantees limited competition, limited bandwidth, and higher prices. While wireless applications will continue to be an important part of our communications future, it is unlikely they’ll be the favored method to support high bandwidth content in the near term. Considering the implications of all of the new cell sites required to provide blanket coverage, it may never survive the inevitable howls of protest from neighborhoods who have to live with the eyesores.
Senator Hoyle opened his mouth and stupid fell out. He’s not just wrong — his comments also carry implications for his constituents.
The City of Gastonia, along with Gaston County jointly filed an application alongside 35 others here in North Carolina seeking to get Google’s 1 Gigabit Fiber Optic to the Home Network.
How do city officials feel about their representative in the state legislature actively trashing fiber networks? I will have that answer for you soon.
As I have been reporting here, the moratorium on municipal broadband is alive and well in the legislative halls of Raleigh. Senator David Hoyle (D-Gaston), sponsor of last year’s consumer atrocity HB1252, is back again asking Senator Daniel Clodfelter (D-Mecklenburg County) for a vote May 5th on a proposed moratorium for municipal broadband projects. Hoyle is not running for re-election.
While no new legislation has surfaced yet, several legislators continue to hint that a new bill is forthcoming. Be assured any such legislation will be designed to protect today’s monopoly/duopoly marketplace for broadband service in North Carolina.
Senator David Hoyle calls on the legislative committee to introduce and vote for a moratorium on municipal broadband projects in North Carolina. (April 21, 2010) (1 minute, 30 seconds)
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Meeting Highlights:
Senator Daniel Clodfelter (D-NC)
• Senator Clodfelter opened the meeting stating that he “wants to focus on revenue issues/financing, not whether or not high speed Internet is a good thing.”
• Heather Fennell, from the research division at the General Assembly gave a presentation citing laws that govern cities, the original lawsuit that established precedent for cities to construct municipal fiber networks, what cities have them, and who pays the taxes on different systems.
• Vance Holloman, Deputy Treasurer-State and Local Finance Division spoke next. He assured the committee and attending audience that North Carolina’s existing municipal systems are in good standing and he expected they would be able to pay down debts incurred from initial construction and deployment costs. Holloman added the Local Government Commission, which has to approve the financing of these systems, believed these projects represent “solid economic development investments.” Holloman’s strong presentation should have encouraged legislators to favor economic development from fiber optic broadband, but we had a strong sense several members had already made up their minds made up to oppose these projects. You will have to convince them to reconsider.
• The next part of this session divided 50 minutes between private commercial providers and municipalities to share their views.
The commercial providers went first, beginning with attorney Marcus Trathen from the law firm Brooks/Pierce. Today, he was representing the North Carolina Cable Communications Association (NCCCA). Trathen has also appeared at prior meetings representing the interests of Time Warner Cable.
Trathen’s presentation was about as expected – talking points loaded with misrepresentations and misinformation. Trathen told the committee the industry does not object if cities build private networks for internal communications (how generous), but doesn’t want those networks competing with NCCCA members.
Kelli Kukura, NC League of Municipalities
Suddenlink Communications’ Bill Paramore and AT&T lobbyist Herb Crenshaw also spoke, speaking in glowing terms about investments already made to improve service in the state. Crenshaw claimed AT&T is providing U-verse service in North Carolina after spending $1.2 billion dollars on system upgrades, an amount some have questioned (a 2007 press release pegged it at $350 million.) Of course, North Carolina’s cable and broadband customers who were promised savings from all this “robust competition” have instead been stuck paying annual rate increases that more often than not exceed the rate of inflation.
Next up were the municipalities.
Kelli Kukura from the North Carolina League of Municipalities started by challenging industry propaganda designed to downplay the benefits of municipal broadband. Kukura noted at least 30 North Carolina communities enthusiastically applied for Google’s proposed 1 gigabit fiber to the home network, illustrating intense interest in fiber networks. Google has also been an active proponent of municipal broadband, Kukura noted, reminding legislators the search engine giant defended the rights of municipalities seeking to deploy next generation broadband networks.
Among the communities that have their own municipal systems, job growth grew by an average of 6.4 percent. Kukura cited broadband success stories in Bristol, Virginia and Wilson, North Carolina.
Salisbury small businessman Brad Walser, owner of Walser Technology Group testified that North Carolina community’s new municipal broadband network Fibrant would meet his company’s needs for broadband capacity not available from commercial providers. Walser noted Salisbury is suffering from an unemployment rate exceeding 14 percent. Advanced broadband, he believes, could help the city attract new businesses that will help create new, high paying jobs. Fibrant is expected to launch later this year.
EPB provides broadband service for residents in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Some of the strongest testimony came from Colman Keane, senior strategic planner for municipally-owned EPB Telecom. Keane traveled all the way from EPB’s home in Chattanooga, Tennessee to share his experiences confronting a telecommunications industry hostile to the prospect of facing a new competitor. Keane has seen and heard the industry arguments all before, noting Chattanooga heard the exact same scare stories legislators in Raleigh were hearing today. Chattanooga also faced a proposed one year moratorium and a blizzard of industry-backed lawsuits, all which were won by the city.
The benefits of fiber optic broadband in Chattanooga include dramatically-improved broadband speeds as well as a more efficient power grid made possible from smart meters that help Chattanoogans reduce their peak power usage, saving money. I want to thank Colman for making the long journey on behalf of consumers in North Carolina.
• Finally, Raleigh community activist and former city council candidate Octavia Rainey spoke out against municipal broadband, which concerned me. Rainey spent her time seated with the telecom lobbyists, and her presentation illustrated the impact of astroturf efforts to co-opt good-hearted consumers into the industry cause. I hope to establish a dialogue with Ms. Rainey to share our information with her and learn more about how she reached her views on this subject. More to come.
The complete hearing of the Revenue & Laws Committee of the North Carolina Legislature on the issue of the financial implications of municipal broadband, chaired by Senator Daniel Clodfelter (D-Mecklenburg County) (April 21, 2010) (2 hours, 8 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip, or you can download the clip and listen later.
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[Octavia has a long history of community involvement in Raleigh, trying hard to improve her neighborhoods and life in general for area residents, something she is to be applauded for doing. I suspect Ms. Rainey has formed her views on municipal broadband in part from her close working relationship with AT&T, who has a long history trying to make friends with various community groups in part to win favor for their corporate agenda. In this case, Octavia admits AT&T’s Cynthia Mitchell and her have become “great partners.” AT&T provided support in building an area playground and also paid for lunch for volunteers working on the project, adding the company wanted to be a part of the Raleigh community. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but one wonders if the conversation also drifted into AT&T’s talking points along the way.
Ms. Rainey also praised AT&T for delivering free Internet service to 290 Raleigh-area families last fall, which would make it ironic if she didn’t support municipal broadband, which has a proven track record of erasing the digital divide and lowering prices for hard-pressed consumers. These are the people that need some fact-based information about the true benefits of municipal broadband. — Phillip Dampier]
Today was expected, but disappointing nonetheless. Hoyle actually suggested that fiber networks may be obsolete in five years and we may be moving to wireless. If that were true, why is he hellbent on a moratorium and the banning of such networks at the industry’s behest? Why would the telecommunications industry be concerned about “obsolete fiber networks?” The only thing obsolete here are the broadband networks owned by big cable and phone companies Hoyle wants to preserve and protect.
Rep. Pryor Gibson (D-NC)
Rep. Pryor Gibson, who we noted is a manager for Time Warner Cable Construction agreed to recuse himself from this issue after it became a point of contention and sat in the back corner of the room.
All of your e-mails and calls have been getting through to the legislators. This kind of attention makes them nervous and I ask you to continue. I can assure you that we here at Stop the Cap!, along with Communities United for Broadband, Broadband for Everyone NC, and Save North Carolina Broadband are going to ratchet up attention on this issue.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Continue writing and calling the legislators below and asking them to oppose a moratorium on municipal broadband. Make plans on May 5th to come to Raleigh and be part of the crowd that opposes the moratorium. I will post meeting details as they develop.
Please thank the legislators we have identified on this committee as friends of our cause:
Sen. Daniel T. Blue, Jr. Wake [email protected] (919) 733-5752 Democrat (919) 833-1931 Attorney
Sen. Fletcher Lee Hartsell, Jr. Cabarrus, Iredell [email protected] (919) 733-7223 Republican (704) 786-5161 Attorney
Sen. Josh Stein Wake [email protected] (919)715-6400 Democrat (919)715-6400 Lawyer
Rep. Paul Luebke (Co-Chair) Durham [email protected] 919-733-7663 Democrat 919-286-0269 College Teacher
Rep. Jennifer Weiss Wake [email protected] 919-715-3010 Democrat 919-715-3010 Lawyer-Mom
The rest of the lot either doesn’t support North Carolina consumers or have not yet made their views known on this issue. We must pin them down and identify those elected legislators that represent the people versus those representing big cable and phone interests. Be sure to tell them you will interpret any support for a moratorium on municipal broadband to mean they are opposed to competition, opposed to lower prices for consumers, opposed to job creation and economic growth, and obviously for the cable and phone interests that will stop at nothing to keep these systems from being built.
Ask them how they could possibly support keeping North Carolina 41st in the country in broadband rankings, why they are against reducing the 11.2 percent unemployment rate (10th worst in the country) in North Carolina, and how they can justify a vote that guarantees exactly more of the same. If you are from a city that applied for Google Fiber, remind your legislator passing this kind of hostile moratorium delivers a strong message this state is not serious about the next generation of broadband, and Google should look elsewhere.
Above all, note now that they understand the true implications this moratorium will have on constituents, you are confident there is no way they could ever support such a bad idea. Their delivery of a strong “no” vote reminds you why you supported them in the last election and will consider doing so again in the next.
Always be polite, professional, and persuasive in your correspondence, but deliver a clear and firm message that supporting a moratorium is completely unacceptable. Finally, be sure to ask them to get back in touch with you regarding their position on this issue as soon as possible. Then let us know!
Sen. Daniel Gray Clodfelter (Co-Chair) Mecklenberg [email protected] (919) 715-8331 Democrat (704) 331-1041 Attorney
Sen. Peter Samuel Brunstetter Forsyth [email protected] (919) 733-7850 Republican (336) 747-6604 Attorney
Sen. David W. Hoyle Gaston [email protected] (919) 733-5734 Democrat (704) 867-0822 Real Estate Developer/Investor
Sen. Samuel Clark Jenkins Edgecomb, Martin, Pitt [email protected] (919) 715-3040 Democrat (252) 823-7029 W.S. Clark Farms
Sen. Jerry W. Tillman Montgomery, Randolph [email protected] (919) 733-5870 Republican (336) 431-5325 Ret’d school teacher
Rep. Harold J. Brubaker Randolph [email protected] 919-715-4946 Republican 336-629-5128 Real Estate Appraiser
We are getting the message out about what will occur Wednesday here in North Carolina and you all are doing a great job writing and calling legislators to let them know not to support a Moratorium on Municipal Broadband Deployment. But, we need to show up with an army of folks this Wednesday morning to show them we are involved and watching their every move.
Please try to be at the Legislative Office Building, Room 544, 300 North Salisbury Street in Raleigh this Wednesday at 9:30am.
In the original action alert we told you what was at stake. I wanted to add some information I did not have at the time that makes this all the more interesting.
First, Sen. Daniel Clodfelter (D-Mecklenburg County), who is a co-chair of the Committee is pushing this moratorium because, we are told, he believes that municipal broadband hurts the private sector and will negatively impact state tax revenue.
This is false.
For one, as far as we can tell, a corporation’s tax payments to the state are not a part of the public record, so exactly how Clodfelter does the math escapes us.
What is known is that broadband is a job stimulator, and considering North Carolina’s current broadband ranking is 41st out of 50 states, there is nowhere to go but up. When businesses consider opening offices or facilities in a state, broadband can be an important deciding factor. When companies like Time Warner Cable refuse to upgrade their broadband service, few digital businesses are going to consider making North Carolina their new home.
Clodfelter has enjoyed some non-broadband-related growth in his district — namely the brand spanking new $29 million Time Warner Cable headquarters office just constructed in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County. Ironically, the same company that doesn’t want public dollars going to their potential competitors has no problem taking dollars themselves — the expansion in Charlotte was made possible in part by a Job Development Investment Grant from the State of North Carolina. Job growth for Time Warner Cable? Sure. Job growth for companies that want better broadband? Not so much.
Time Warner Cable's new $29 million dollar complex in Charlotte was made possible in part by a Job Development Investment Grant from the state government.
Next, Committee member Rep. Pryor Gibson (D-Anson, Union Counties) is, as we pointed out in the last action alert, a Time Warner Cable Contractor — and that was an understatement. We made a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain additional information about Rep. Gibson’s interests outside his legislative duties. According to his 2008 Statement of Economic Interest, under Job Title/Employer, Gibson prioritizes:
Manager, Time Warner Cable Construction
Legislator, NC General Assembly
self-employed, builder.
Gibson lists his job titles starting with "Time Warner Cable Contractor" in this Statement of Economic Interest obtained through a Freedom of Information Request (click to see the entire document - PDF)
Yes, he lists his Time Warner Cable job before legislator. I guess we know whose interests he represents first.
Today, I am filing a complaint with the North Carolina Ethics Commission requesting that Gibson be forced to recuse himself from conversations about cable/telecommunications and that he abstain from any votes on these matters as a direct conflict of interest. I also have a call into Speaker Joe Hackney’s office to request that he inquire about this issue as well.
It has been two months since the groundswell of support for Google’s Fiber Optic “Think Big With a Gig” Project became the issue for some 1,100 communities across our country, all jockeying to win the search engine giant’s favor. We need to understand what this proposed moratorium really means for the state of North Carolina.
There was no shortage of applicants in this state, all clamoring for economic boosting, job growing, innovative super fast broadband. Greensboro, Asheville, Durham and Wilmington were all represented, fully backed by local government officials. What do 1,100 communities know that Clodfelter doesn’t? That high speed broadband is America’s next great game-changing infrastructure project, as important as the canal system, railroads, highways, and airports were to past generations. It’s no surprise those with vested interests in keeping things exactly as they are would fight to stop such projects. But our legislators should not be enabling them.
What does it mean to Google, when sifting through the thousand plus applications, to find North Carolina’s legislature throwing up hostile opposition to expansive broadband projects? Google is not going to get into the Internet Service Provider business. Sooner or later, Google could easily turn such demonstration projects over to a local municipality once the search engine’s public policy agenda is fulfilled. If this moratorium passes, they can’t do that. But nothing prohibits them from selling it off to an incumbent provider like Time Warner Cable or CenturyLink. Both would be more than happy to accept it I’m sure, all while maintaining today’s current high prices made possible from the ongoing broadband duopoly. Then again, seeing how North Carolina seeks to clamp down on broadband innovation, Google may just decide to look elsewhere.
Keep up the good work fighting for better broadband. Continue writing and calling legislators on the issue and please be there Wednesday to let them know we are watching and that we will hold them to a higher standard then some of them hold themselves. Be sure to report back what you are hearing in response, and please thank and support those that choose to reject this legislation.
Here again is the information for the membership of The Joint Revenue Laws Study Committee, so get on the phones and write those e-mails!:
(Please send individual messages to members, even if the contents are essentially the same — avoid simply CC’ing a single message to every representative.)
Sen. Daniel Gray Clodfelter (Co-Chair) Mecklenberg [email protected] (919) 715-8331 Democrat (704) 331-1041 Attorney
Sen. Daniel T. Blue, Jr. Wake [email protected] (919) 733-5752 Democrat (919) 833-1931 Attorney
Sen. Peter Samuel Brunstetter Forsyth [email protected] (919) 733-7850 Republican (336) 747-6604 Attorney
Sen. Fletcher Lee Hartsell, Jr. Cabarrus, Iredell [email protected] (919) 733-7223 Republican (704) 786-5161 Attorney
Sen. David W. Hoyle Gaston [email protected] (919) 733-5734 Democrat (704) 867-0822 Real Estate Developer/Investor
Sen. Samuel Clark Jenkins Edgecomb, Martin, Pitt [email protected] (919) 715-3040 Democrat (252) 823-7029 W.S. Clark Farms
Sen. Josh Stein Wake [email protected] (919)715-6400 Democrat (919)715-6400 Lawyer
Sen. Jerry W. Tillman Montgomery, Randolph [email protected] (919) 733-5870 Republican (336) 431-5325 Ret’d school teacher
Rep. Paul Luebke (Co-Chair) Durham [email protected] 919-733-7663 Democrat 919-286-0269 College Teacher
Rep. Harold J. Brubaker Randolph [email protected] 919-715-4946 Republican 336-629-5128 Real Estate Appraiser
When millions of dollars are at stake, some commercial broadband providers will stop at nothing to preserve the duopoly they enjoy across most of North Carolina. Their formula for success — delivering the least amount of service at the highest possible price. When communities like Wilson and Salisbury decided that formula wasn’t working for them, they embarked on their own municipally-built, fiber-based broadband networks. It wasn’t something either community took lightly. They asked, they pleaded, they begged for better broadband service from incumbent providers who decided what they were providing was already good enough.
The biggest shock of these providers’ lives came when both communities decided to build better networks themselves.
Now, the commercial providers who are challenged to upgrade to compete are instead spending enormous sums of money in the North Carolina legislature to put a stop to these municipal projects. Why spend money on upgrading when you can simply ban the potential competition?
Last year, Stop the Cap! teamed up with other consumer advocates to put a stop to legislation custom-written by the cable industry and introduced by a very-compliant state legislator. When our readers and others called to complain, some found the phone handed off to a cable lobbyist literally sitting in his office!
Your outrage over paying big bills for bad service from too few providers was heard in Raleigh, and the legislation was de-fanged and buried in a committee charged with “studying the issue.” The legislator who introduced it resigned under an ethical cloud last fall.
Unfortunately for consumers in North Carolina, there is always someone else willing to pick up where the last one who sold his constituents down the river left off.
Our North Carolina issues coordinator Jay Ovittore, who is now working with Communities United for Broadband to promote better broadband, is here with a report about the latest developments in North Carolina and a Call to Action! for all of our readers. Preserving successful municipal broadband projects and those working to get off the ground protects this option for every community faced with intransigent broadband providers who won’t improve service. — Phillip Dampier
As I told everyone on Stop the Cap! last summer, they would be back.
They are, and now they’ve shown us their cards.
North Carolina’s incumbent cable and phone companies are once again trying to ram through an anti-municipal broadband bill, and their timing is designed to rush it through committee before a groundswell of consumer opposition has a chance to build. Time is short — the bill will be taken up April 21st in the Revenue Laws Study Committee, so your immediate action is imperative!
Clodfelter
This year’s push for anti-consumer legislation comes courtesy of Senator Daniel G. Clodfelter (D-Mecklenburg County).
He reportedly wants a moratorium on all municipal broadband deployments on the alleged basis that these are bad for the private sector and will harm state tax revenue. Hello? Virtually every municipal broadband project underway fuels job creation as crews work to install the fiber optic networks that will come to represent an economic catalyst and job creator. When communities no longer have to turn away digital economy jobs lost because of inadequate broadband by existing providers, that’s an economic victory for hard-pressed North Carolina, where unemployment is at 11.2 percent these days — 10th worst in the country.
The FCC’s National Broadband Plan has prioritized stimulating the deployment of ultra high-speed broadband (100/50Mbps) service to 100 million households in ten years, so why are some in our legislature standing in the way of better broadband options for North Carolina? You need to ask them!
Just look at Wilson’s community broadband project for evidence of a broadband success story. Wilson pleaded with providers to deliver 21st century broadband service to no avail. So Wilson did it themselves.
Cable and phone companies howled in protest. They even brought in their astroturfing friends from corporate-funded groups like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity to try and hookwink consumers into opposing municipal broadband.
It’s just another classic case of providers not wanting to spend money to upgrade their networks to compete. Communities like Wilson getting the broadband service they deserve are good examples of why the industry is afraid such projects could spread.
Watch what happens when a municipal provider competes for your business. Catherine Rice of Action Audits delivered the undeniable proof at a December NC House Select Committee on High Speed Internet Access in Rural and Urban Areas hearing, showing while cable and broadband rates across the state march ever higher, they strangely don’t in Wilson, where GreenLight, the municipal alternative, keeps rates in check. Click here to download a PDF copy of the slides Rice refers to in her presentation. (11 minutes)
Some members of the legislature will stand with their constituents and vote against this anti-consumer nightmare. Some may not be fully informed on the issues and are only hearing the telecommunications industry talking points. For some others, I’m afraid it’s a case of following the money.
The telecommunications industry in North Carolina is very generous to their benefactors, only too willing to return the favor writing the industry’s wish-list into state law.
You will recognize some of the names from the Follow the Money series I wrote last year (read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). It’s a new year, so Part 4 will follow in the coming days, updating the financial contributions of incumbents and introducing new members and how much they’ve accepted from this industry.
Ironically, one of the legislators, Rep. Pryor Allan Gibson, III works as a contractor for Time Warner Cable! His vote will be particularly interesting to follow.
North Carolina Legislature
North Carolina Call to Action!
Phone calls are always the most effective, and they are timely coming just days before the April 21st meeting of the Revenue Laws Study Committee. But you can also e-mail representatives (and that’s not a bad idea even if you also called). North Carolina deserves world-class, next-generation broadband. Don’t allow a handful of the same companies overcharging you for today’s slow service strangle your best chance for competition!
Here is a sample e-mail message to send to all of the Committee members involved:
Subject: Don’t You Dare Vote for an Anti-Municipal Broadband Bill!
Message: As a consumer, I was disturbed to hear the Revenue Laws Study Committee was prepared to vote for an industry-sponsored Anti-Municipal Broadband Bill on April 21st. Please do not vote for this or any other bill that removes competitive choice for broadband service. Our local communities should not be stopped from deploying 21st century fiber to the home systems other providers refuse to deliver. Such fiber networks create jobs, keep North Carolina business competitive, and stimulate economic development, which will deliver needed tax revenue.
The same providers backing this bill that are not delivering service to unserved communities, or offer inadequate service in others, have had a decade to deliver the service municipal providers are actually providing today in our state. Instead of delivering, they’ve offered a litany of excuses and now want special legislative protections to preserve their entrenched market position.
As a consumer, I am fed up with relentless rate increases year after year. In communities like Wilson, where a municipal provider delivers excellent service, the rate increases from cable and phone companies have stopped. A vote for this bill guarantees we’ll be paying higher and higher cable and phone bills indefinitely, and that’s something I would definitely remember come Election Day. Make no mistake — this proposed legislation is an obvious gift to the telecommunications industry at the expense of all of your constituents, including myself. That’s why I am confident you will stand up and make your opposition heard to this and similar measures.
At a time when the FCC’s National Broadband Plan envisions 100 million households with ultra-fast broadband service delivering economic benefits, it’s ironic our state legislature is even considering impeding the very providers that are on track to fulfill that goal.
With 11.2 percent unemployment — the 10th worst in the country, now is not the time to put a moratorium on North Carolina’s communities considering a better future through municipally-provided broadband.
With all this in mind, I am confident you will deliver for constituents like myself and oppose these industry-backed bills. I look forward to hearing from you soon on this issue.
For best results, use your own wording and talk about the broadband market in your community. You can reference the excitement over Google’s fiber to the home project.
Here are the Committee members to write or call, including their district area and what they do for a living:
(Please send individual messages to members, even if the contents are essentially the same — avoid simply CC’ing a single message to every representative.)
Sen. Daniel Gray Clodfelter (Co-Chair) Mecklenberg [email protected] (919) 715-8331 Democrat (704) 331-1041 Attorney
Sen. Daniel T. Blue, Jr. Wake [email protected] (919) 733-5752 Democrat (919) 833-1931 Attorney
Sen. Peter Samuel Brunstetter Forsyth [email protected] (919) 733-7850 Republican (336) 747-6604 Attorney
Sen. Fletcher Lee Hartsell, Jr. Cabarrus, Iredell [email protected] (919) 733-7223 Republican (704) 786-5161 Attorney
Sen. David W. Hoyle Gaston [email protected] (919) 733-5734 Democrat (704) 867-0822 Real Estate Developer/Investor
Sen. Samuel Clark Jenkins Edgecomb, Martin, Pitt [email protected] (919) 715-3040 Democrat (252) 823-7029 W.S. Clark Farms
Sen. Josh Stein Wake [email protected] (919)715-6400 Democrat (919)715-6400 Lawyer
Sen. Jerry W. Tillman Montgomery, Randolph [email protected] (919) 733-5870 Republican (336) 431-5325 Ret’d school teacher
Rep. Paul Luebke (Co-Chair) Durham [email protected] 919-733-7663 Democrat 919-286-0269 College Teacher
Rep. Harold J. Brubaker Randolph [email protected] 919-715-4946 Republican 336-629-5128 Real Estate Appraiser
Last spring, consumers across North Carolina banded together to oppose legislation custom-written by the telecommunications industry to keep municipal broadband networks from competing with cable and telephone companies. Your efforts made a dramatic impact on state legislators and the bill was set aside. One representative that helped push it has since resigned after being caught up in a campaign contribution scandal. But we always knew the industry would be back. The threat of competition, and a reduction in their fat profits, is too great to ignore.
HB1252 – The “Level Playing Field” bill, which is among the most ironically named pieces of state legislation around, will be in the North Carolina House Select Committee on High Speed Internet in Rural and Urban Areas on Monday morning at 10am. For those of you who might want to attend, the meeting will be held in Room 415 of the Legislative Office Building at the General Assembly in Raleigh.
For those smart enough to recognize a telecom industry power play when they see one, a reality check for our state legislators is imperative.
I have been attempting to be added to the agenda to speak against HB1252 as a consumer. So far, no call back.
I believe that I have a unique perspective on this issue, as I hail from Greensboro, one of the communities that experienced the attempt by Time Warner Cable to force classic Internet Overcharging schemes like metered billing and data caps on consumers in the Triad region. These experiments came as a direct result of the large void many of us have in the area of competition.
HB1252 would make it next to impossible for municipalities to have their own city run broadband service to compete. The city of Wilson made the dream a reality. What costs a Time Warner Cable customer $180 to bundle cable, telephone, and Internet service together is on offer in Wilson from their municipal system for a mere $99. That’s nearly half the price.
Wilson’s Greenlight system offers a direct fiber to the home connection to subscribers. Wilson customers get speeds up to 100Mbps, ten times faster than cable or DSL. What has Time Warner Cable done in Wilson to compete? They reportedly cut their prices, particularly for consumers calling to cancel.
HB1252 will help protect Time Warner Cable and other providers in North Carolina from ever having to cut prices and take a profit hit. By taking away your community’s right to provide service the cable and phone companies refuse to provide, at an affordable price, this piece of legislation assures you of paying more and having less choice.
If you cannot attend Monday’s session, you can still deliver a wakeup call to state legislators by reminding them you are paying close attention to this issue, and know exactly who is behind the push for HB1252. Tell your representative Time Warner Cable and other telecommunications interests should not be ghost-writing legislation that favors them and protects their monopoly. Ask your legislators to firmly oppose HB1252 and demand as much competition as the marketplace can stand, be it from phone, cable, wireless, or municipally run fiber to the home.
Here is the list of North Carolina representatives. We won the first few rounds on behalf of North Carolina consumers. Time to win one more!
Be Sure to Read Part One: Astroturf Overload — Broadband for America = One Giant Industry Front Group for an important introduction to what this super-sized industry front group is all about. Members of Broadband for America Red: A company or group actively engaging in anti-consumer lobbying, opposes Net Neutrality, supports Internet Overcharging, belongs to […]
Astroturf: One of the underhanded tactics increasingly being used by telecom companies is “Astroturf lobbying” – creating front groups that try to mimic true grassroots, but that are all about corporate money, not citizen power. Astroturf lobbying is hardly a new approach. Senator Lloyd Bentsen is credited with coining the term in the 1980s to […]
Hong Kong remains bullish on broadband. Despite the economic downturn, City Telecom continues to invest millions in constructing one of Hong Kong’s largest fiber optic broadband networks, providing fiber to the home connections to residents. City Telecom’s HK Broadband service relies on an all-fiber optic network, and has been dubbed “the Verizon FiOS of Hong […]
BendBroadband, a small provider serving central Oregon, breathlessly announced the imminent launch of new higher speed broadband service for its customers after completing an upgrade to DOCSIS 3. Along with the launch announcement came a new logo of a sprinting dog the company attaches its new tagline to: “We’re the local dog. We better be […]
Stop the Cap! reader Rick has been educating me about some of the new-found aggression by Shaw Communications, one of western Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, in expanding its business reach across Canada. Woe to those who get in the way. Novus Entertainment is already familiar with this story. As Stop the Cap! reported previously, Shaw […]
The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, the Canadian equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, may be forced to consider American broadband policy before defining Net Neutrality and its role in Canadian broadband, according to an article published today in The Globe & Mail. [FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s] proposal – to codify and enforce some […]
In March 2000, two cable magnates sat down for the cable industry equivalent of My Dinner With Andre. Fine wine, beautiful table linens, an exquisite meal, and a Monopoly board with pieces swapped back and forth representing hundreds of thousands of Canadian consumers. Ted Rogers and Jim Shaw drew a line on the western Ontario […]
Just like FairPoint Communications, the Towering Inferno of phone companies haunting New England, Frontier Communications is making a whole lot of promises to state regulators and consumers, if they’ll only support the deal to transfer ownership of phone service from Verizon to them. This time, Frontier is issuing a self-serving press release touting their investment […]
I see it took all of five minutes for George Ou and his friends at Digital Society to be swayed by the tunnel vision myopia of last week’s latest effort to justify Internet Overcharging schemes. Until recently, I’ve always rationalized my distain for smaller usage caps by ignoring the fact that I’m being subsidized by […]
In 2007, we took our first major trip away from western New York in 20 years and spent two weeks an hour away from Calgary, Alberta. After two weeks in Kananaskis Country, Banff, Calgary, and other spots all over southern Alberta, we came away with the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Good Alberta […]
A federal appeals court in Washington has struck down, for a second time, a rulemaking by the Federal Communications Commission to limit the size of the nation’s largest cable operators to 30% of the nation’s pay television marketplace, calling the rule “arbitrary and capricious.” The 30% rule, designed to keep no single company from controlling […]
Less than half of Americans surveyed by PC Magazine report they are very satisfied with the broadband speed delivered by their Internet service provider. PC Magazine released a comprehensive study this month on speed, provider satisfaction, and consumer opinions about the state of broadband in their community. The publisher sampled more than 17,000 participants, checking […]
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