Time Warner Cable Won't Compete, Seeks Legislation

narramissic writes "The good people of Wilson, NC pay $99/month for 10/10 Mbps internet service, 81 TV channels and telephone service. How'd they manage that, you ask? Well, the city-owned and operated cable service called Greenlight came into being when the City of Wilson approached TWC and local DSL provider Embarq and requested faster service for the area. 'TWC refused the request. And so Greenlight was born,' says blogger Peter Smith. 'Now Time Warner Cable and Embarq are upset that they've got competition, and rather than try to go head to head with Greenlight on price and service, they've instead been lobbying the state government of NC to pass laws to put Greenlight out of business. Apparently they're having some success, as the NC State Senate has proposed bills that would do TWC's bidding.'"

Comments

Convert?

[arizwebfoot]

Would it just be easier to convert Greenlight to a citizen run corporation or make it a utility?

I am not a legal eagle on NC law, but I would think it wouldn't be that difficult to convert to a citizen run profit/nonprofit corporation and then TWC is effectively screwed.

Re:Convert?

[NormalVisual]

Time-Warner had their chance to provide the service, and refused to do so. I personally think that communications/data connectivity needs to become a utility, just like power/water/sewer especially in light of the ridiculous amount of subsidies the phone companies/cable companies receive in the form of rights-of-way, easements, exclusive franchise agreements, etc.

Perhaps a more efficient way of doing things would be for the city to maintain the physical infrastructure, whereas smaller ISPs like yourself would lease bandwidth on the public lines.

They need to be put in check

[Erie Ed]

This is why TWC needs to be investigated for their practices. It seems to me that the NC government just wants to roll over to TWC wishes. I for one applaude that community that actually went out and did something to improve their service. Also I believe 10/10Mbps for $99 is a fair price as long as the quality is there.

Re:So they have two Cables running in parallel?

[UnknowingFool]

Probably not. I'm guessing with a $28 million initial cost, the city wanted to run fiber. TWC and Embarq refused saying it would cost them too much. By the way, federal taxes since 1995 have paid something on the order of $202 billion to these companies to put in fiber but they have taken the money and have never installed it. So the city took it upon themselves to run fiber. So TWC and Embarq cannot compete since they are most likely using copper. What TWC and Embarq would like to do is put Greenlight out of business then take over their lines. Then they could offer higher speeds. Of course they will charge their customers double the price Greenlight was charging even though they paid nothing for the infrastructure.