North Carolina House Bill 1587 which throws high hurdles in front of municipalities wanting to provide high-speed Internet access and other communications services to residents, is headed for the state House Finance Committee.North Carolina’s House Bill 1587 which throws high hurdles in front of municipalities wanting to provide high-speed Internet access and other communications services to residents, is headed for the state’s House Finance Committee.
Randy Fraser, a lobbyist for Time Warner Cable, was quoted on the web site of North Carolina radio station WRAL: “It’s an issue of fair competition and local government not using their taxing and borrowing authority in a way that gives them a competitive advantage over private business.”
In fact, the bill steals local control from municipalities tired of wiating on incumbents to deploy or upgrade communications services to their residents. Underserved communities where population density isn’t sufficient to drive the profit motive will be most affected.
In sending the bill along, legislators did remove a hurdle that would have required a referendum on municipal deployments. However, the bill still forces munis to tax municipal services at a level that would make prices as high as those charged by incumbent providers.
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