[RCAC] Time Warner seeks to block municipal Internet

Hello fellow CAC leaders. I mentioned this to a few CAC chairs at last night's meeting and thought others might also be interested. A bill is pending in the North Carolina Legislature to effectively prohibit municipalities from providing Internet service the way they do water, sewer, police and fire protection, etc. The bill, House Bill 1252 ironically called the "Level Playing Field Act," would impose onerous restrictions on cities attempting to provide communications to their citizens. It could jeopardize Raleigh's new downtown wireless Internet project, among others. As CAC leaders, you all know how vital communication is for our neighborhoods. You are also aware of our "digital divide" - that many of our citizens cannot afford the high cost of broadband Internet. Some healthy competition would do wonders for this, but this bill would strip the ability for cities to provide their own, affordable Internet service to their citizens. Wilson, NC built its own, state-of-the-art fiber-optic network providing voice, video, and Internet service to its residents. By all accounts it is a smashing success! Wilson subscribers pay $35/month for a system that puts anything Time Warner Cable or AT&T offers to shame. It's twice as fast! Not only that, Wilson's system has been an economic stimulus for the city, keeping jobs in Wilson and attracting new jobs. Now, I'm not saying Raleigh necessarily *should* go out and build its own network - that would have to be decided by the folks in the Big Chairs. But why remove the right for us to even consider it? President Obama's stimulus authorized over $4 billion dollars to improve our nation's broadband infrastructure. That's money Raleigh could be using to connect its neighborhoods for the 21st century - and more importantly, provide JOBS for our citizens. The restrictions House Bill 1252 would prohibit this stimulus money from being spent. No new networks, no new jobs. If you think Raleigh should be allowed to decide its digital future for itself, or if you don't believe billion-dollar companies like Time Warner Cable and AT&T need protection from tiny towns like Wilson, please contact your representatives and let them know how you feel. I sure would like some of that stimulus money ... Here's a link to HB1252: http://is.gd/sNUZ The bill will be in the Science and Technology Committee Wednesday morning. Please contact the committee members ASAP: http://is.gd/sKJ1 Here's a website that follows this issue: http://savencbb.wordpress.com/ Here's the system Wilson built, called Greenlight: http://www.greenlightnc.com Here's what a municipal system could do for Raleigh: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/story/1152083.html Regards, Mark