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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.'"
In this case, the corporations are having to compete against the government. Specifically, they are competing against a city run company that can use tax and fee revenue to subsidize operating costs, and thus keep the customer's bill artificially low.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Ya know what, I really don't care if it's fair to TW or not. Let the cable companies go screw, they've done NOTHING good for me but offer headache and misery and crappy service.
I'm much happier with my city run fiber and the phone / internet / tv they offer.
Does $99/mo cover all operating costs or were sales/property/etc. taxes raised to subsidize the services?