As I wrote earlier, this entire debate has barely budged in two years.  Wilson wants to run its municipal broadband service, and big cable and telco interests want to kill it if they can.  Two years after similar legislation died in the North Carolina legislature, the lobbyists and some co-opted state legislators are back for another round, trying to stop municipal broadband in its tracks with false statements about where these projects obtain funding.  The Wilson project, for example, was financed from a bond issue, with proceeds from subscription revenue going to repay bondholders.  No taxpayer funds are involved.  But cable lobbyists keep claiming otherwise, and also suggest they are being victimized by local governments.

The truth is, of course, the other way around.  Many smaller communities lack robust competition, and their citizens suffer for it.  System upgrades to bring additional speed at lower prices come to those areas where fierce competition exists.  Those stuck where competition is lacking or lackluster find upgrades slow in coming, if at all.  When a local government cannot convince companies to upgrade, they took it on themselves to get a better system up and running.  That can become a major selling point to attract new businesses, and keep residents on the cutting edge, usually at prices substantially lower than charged by incumbent providers.

Big corporate interests apparently cannot compete with better service and lower prices, so the next best thing is to find a politician willing to do your bidding to kill them off for you.  And as we’ve seen from Save NC Broadband’s reports, many of these legislators are so inept about comprehending the legislation they propose and support, they show their true colors when they simply defer to Time Warner’s own staff for speak for them!

Another great report from WRAL that tells the story.  The “cable guy” is back claiming tax dollars are involved here.  What in the world Rep. Ty Harrell is thinking is beyond me.  Also, can we stop with the metaphor of the TV showing a snowy picture?  We’re about ready to check into a deluxe suite in Hotel Cliché with that.

Apparently not being sufficiently warned off by Time Warner’s earlier statements that municipal broadband would be expensive and a pain for the community of Wilson to administer, they found some friendly legislators in state government and helped push a bill that would effectively hamper, if not terminate the Wilson community’s broadband initiative. In a well orchestrated lobbying effort, cable industry officials began claiming that taxpayer funds were being used to leverage the public sector’s broadband product at the expense of “the free market.” But as Wilson city officials explained, their Greenlight project is firewalled from using public tax revenue. The project was paid for by a bond offering and is expected to be self-sustaining through ongoing customer receipts.

Cable industry officials continued to attack municipal broadband projects as failures waiting to happen, pointing to earlier projects that often relied on wireless networks, wi-fi, or older technology. Many cities with these projects have been unable to scale them to grow with expected demand, or have had difficulty expanding their network into other areas of the community. Others outsourced them to be administered by private providers in return for public considerations, such as free/discounted access in certain areas.

Fiber optic broadband projects are new to most municipal broadband projects, and come as a result of a lack of comparable service from private providers unwilling to meet the needs of communities. So having not succeeded in dissuading municipal competition, they now seek to effectively kill it with handcrafted legislation passed into friendly hands.

WRAL continues its in-depth coverage on the challenges Wilson, NC faces in building their municipal fiber network.  Time Warner officials, among others, make some unproven accusations and statements in this report that go unchallenged, but overall it provides a balanced look at the growing controversy.

If one of our readers is keeping a spreadsheet of all of the various claims, rates, and percentages Time Warner keeps throwing out there when it comes to who usage caps affect, and who they don’t, here’s another percentage – 86%. Melissa Buscher, director of Media Relations for Time Warner down in the Triad region, tells viewers that’s the percentage of customers who will be completely unaffected by the proposed usage limits. Who is affected? “Very heavy downloaders and heavy gamers,” according to Buscher.

All of these random numbers reminded me of the scene in The Manchurian Candidate when a very frustrated Mrs. Iselin decided the only way her McCarthyesque husband, Senator John Iselin, would be able to remember how many Communists he accused of working for the State Department, was to try and memorize a single number.  The Heinz Ketchup bottle touting “57 varieties” served quite nicely, allowing Sen. Iselin to emphatically insist that there were 57 confirmed Communists infiltrating the State Department.

WETM covers the cap plan being shelved out of concern that it one day would reach the southern tier of New York, where Road Runner has a very substantial market share for broadband service. Congressman Massa hails from the nearby Corning area, as his district extends northwards all the way into Rochester’s southern suburbs.