Stop the North Carolina anti-muni broadband bill
I thought these anti-muni broadband bills were a thing of the past, like platform shoes. Unfortunately they are back, like platform shoes. The latest one is from North Carolina, a state that has a vibrant tech industry. Those Who Hog The Pipes, the owners of communications infrastructure who want no competition, are behind this one and it’s time to drive a stake into the heart of this odious piece of legislation. The version of HB 1587 that passed the North Carolina House Public Utilities Committee yesterday (see links below) no longer contains a referendum requirement, but it would still impose numerous significant barriers that would effectively stop community broadband initiatives in their tracks.
In some cases, the revised bill contains cynical word changes that would achieve the same detrimental purposes as the provisions they supposedly replace.
For example, the original version contained an explicit requirement that public communications projects be cash-flow positive within four years — a requirement that no major public — or private — fiber-to-the-home project could meet. The revised bill replaces the explicit four-year requirement with a requirement that public projects be cash-flow positive “within a specified period of time after the communications service is first provided, such time to be consistent with commercial practices for similar projects.”
Since commercial entities typically seek to achieve profitability within four years, the substitute language would have essentially the same detrimental effects as the language it replaces. At the very least, the new language would result in endless disputes about the meaning of “consist! ent with,” “commercial practices,” and “similar projects” — all of which would create substantial risks and delays that would dry up financing for public high-bandwidth next generation networks of the kind that America sorely needs.
In short, HB 1587 is bad for the communities of North Carolina and bad for United States as a whole. It is particularly offensive because it is touted as being necessary to achieve a “level playing field” for the incumbent communications providers, yet the incumbents do not, and could not, comply with HB 1587 themselves. To determine how bad a bill HB 1587 really is, the North Carolina legislature need only ask the incumbents whether they would be willing to abide by its restrictions themselves. HB 1587 should be defeated in its entirety.
Time is of the essence. We urge you to promptly send letters or emails, make telephone calls, and visit personally with the key members of the North Carolina legislature. If you would like to become involved, please go to www.baller.com and email Jim Baller. He will link you with local coordinators and furnish you background material and contact information for the key legislators.
Let’s stop bills like HB 1587 once and for all.
Links to the documents:
HB1587_as_amended_June_6_2007.pdf
Related posts:
Loading ...
The most anti-competitive item in this bill–and the one that is most likely to kill the usefulness of any network constrained by this bill–is the idea that the timeline to “profitability” should be consistent with commercial practices for similar projects.
The raw arrogance of this is breathtaking. Writing the assumption that municipal broadband MUST be, by FORCE OF LAW, motivated by the sort of instant profitability that has led the incumbents to refuse to invest in modern broadband capacities is a sure way to make sure that no municipality can build a superior system and offer it to its citizens for a more attractive price than the incumbents.
Cities that build infrastructure are not, and should not be, motivated by such simple greed. Infrastructure that the private sector does not find attractive enough to invest in should be purchased exactly like any other infrastructure: its cost should be spread over its useful life and the community charged a pro rata share of its cost each year.