Google and Intel announced today their opposition to H1252, the so-called “Level Playing Field Act.”. In a letter to legislators, the companies joined Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, Telecommunications Industry Association, the Fiber to the Home Council, Educause, the Utilities Telecom Council, Atlantic Engineering and the American Public Power Association in saying:
We, the undersigned private-sector companies and trade associations urge you to oppose HB1252, the so-called “Level Playing Field Act.” HB1252 is “level” only in the sense that it will harm both the public and private sectors. It will thwart public broadband initiatives, stifle economic growth, prevent the creation or retention of thousands of jobs, and diminish quality of life in North Carolina . In particular, it will hurt the private sector by undermining public-private partnerships, hamstringing our ability to sell our goods and services, interfering with workforce development, and stifling creativity and innovation. …
The United States is currently suffering through one of the most serious economic crises in decades.We also continue to lag behind the leading nations in per capita broadband adoption, access to high-capacity networks, cost per unit of bandwidth, and growth of new broadband users. To address these concerns, Congress and the Obama Administration have made more than $7 billion available to catalyze public and private efforts to accelerate deployment of broadband infrastructure and services. States can ill afford to enact measures like HB1252, which impair use of these broadband funds and the ability of the public and private sectors to work hand-in-hand to reverse these trends.We support strong, fair and open competition to ensure users can enjoy the widest range of choice and opportunities to access content online, which is the heart of economic development in an information-based global market. HB1252 is a step in the wrong direction. North Carolina should be lowering barriers to public broadband initiatives rather than establishing new ones, so that we and other high technology companies can spread and prosper across this beautiful state. Please oppose HB1252.
Let me know if I understand this correctly, HB1252 would essentially end free market competition in the area in favor of one local broadband purchased by the local gov’t and distributed “free” to downtown.
I am always concerned when the gov’t offers something for “free”.
No, Todd. The bill does nothing of the sort. It hamstrings cities and citizens from providing their own Internet services in favor of the commercial interests.
Go read my “Why we need municipal Internet” post if you want more examples why HB 1252 is a bad idea.
Mark, please dumb this down for me. HB1252 stops local municipalities from providing their own broadband?
Yes, and not only that, it makes any municipalities submit their plans to the Public Utilities Commission, making Internet service a regulated utility.
This bill adds more unnecessary red tape and regulation to the Internet market and stifles competition.
That all sounds good, but does the gov’t run broadband sustain itself or is it tax payer subsidized?
I work in a business where I have to obtain permits and see red tape and regulation limit productivity on a regular basis.
Still don’t know how I feel about gov’t run anything. I know we have several services like water/sewer, fire protection, mail delivery…etc, but where does it stop?
Leonard, have you looked into the system in Wilson: Greenlight. It isn’t run by taxes, but rather by the revenue it generates. And, with the revenue it generates, it’s able to provide much more than the incumbent local “broadband” providers offered for a cheaper price. The incumbent providers could have offered this service. In fact, Wilson asked them to! They refused. So, Wilson went and built its own system (actually, they were already connecting up their own government entities and just extended the network to allow everyone in the city to connect to it). Now that Wilson has its system up and working, the incumbents are doing everything they possibly can to kill it, burden it, or whatever. Basically the previous incumbents aren’t playing fair.
Is municipal broadband right for all places? I don’t know. Probably not. But, to write a law that essentially outlaws it (by making it much harder to do) before cities consider it is the wrong way to go about things. The incumbent providers have shown they’re more concerned about milking money than providing service and only with true competition will they start innovating. (BTW, did you know that Time Warner Cable only spends 3% of the revenues it gets from internet access to actually provide the service. 97% of their revenue is pure profit. Well, it subsidizes their TV services, but still…. All that, and they still refuse to provide better service.)