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Running List of Barriers to Municipal Competition

Posted by timothy on from the litany-of-bad-actors dept.

batageek writes "In keeping with recent stories on Municipal Broadband, Jim Baller (Muni Telco lawyer/god)has kept a running tab of all the Bell/Cable company-introduced anti-municipal broadband legislation around the country."

2 of 10 comments (clear)

  1. It's so cheap that city governments aren't needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If setting up a wireless network is so cheap and easy, then why aren't more groups like the ones in Portland and Austin simply doing it ?

    If a club or co-op formed to subsidize hotspots and coverage, and you could get the password to use them if you were a member, I'd pay. They should have a discount available to anyone who runs a node from their home and covers enough of their block.

  2. One common requirement by portwojc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A bunch of them have the requirement to make sure that commercial providers aren't intending on launching service. Which is of course a good thing as businesses shouldn't have to compete with the governemt. Of course...

    Companies that are regulated by the state shouldn't be permitted to run businesses that aren't regulated by the state.

    It's hard to ignore the fact that a Bell run ISP has a huge advantage over a non-bell run one.
    Of course public utlity commisions seem to ignore that and can't make the connection.

    Want to see it in action call your local ISP and ask them how much for a T1. Then call the Bell ISP and ask them. Huge price difference. It's not cause the local ISP is greedy it's cause to the Bell the Internet is a commodity to keep customers and it's worth the loss. Plus to a Bell what is one more strand of wire?