The latest iteration of a plan to make it difficult, at best, to develop municipal broadband systems is wending its way through the North Carolina legislature with the support of incumbent cableco Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and telco AT&T (NYSE: T). Similar bills, probably with similar support, are moving through governing bodies in South Carolina and Arkansas.
And they're all wrongheaded, said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who said the legislation sets up roadblocks to municipalities that want to deliver wide-reaching broadband access.
The North Carolina legislation, she said, "certainly sounds goal-worthy, an innocuous proposition, but do not let the title (The Level Playing Field Act) fool you ... it will discourage municipal governments from addressing deployment in communities where the private sector has failed to meet broadband service needs."
For more:
- The Hill has this story
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