US ISPs Using Push Polling To Stop Cheap Internet

An anonymous reader writes "What happens when a new ISP is started somewhere in the United States that completely blows out of the water all the other ISPs in the area, in terms of price and performance? Apparently, that question is being answered in North Carolina, where Greenlight Inc., a company started by a city government, is trying to offer faster, more reliable, and cheaper Internet service to the local residents. Time Warner and Embarq can't compete. So they are not only lobbying the state government to destroy the upstart competition, but are now using push polling methods to gain support, across the two cities that could benefit from the new ISP, for the 'Level the playing field' legislation they got introduced in the legislature." A local news outlet provides coverage more friendly to the incumbents' point of view.

Comments

Push Polling

[drinkypoo]

Because I had never heard of the (incredibly vague) term, I RTFS and found in the comments a description:

Push polling is done wherever the incumbents want to inject BS in to the conversation without "owning" it...In Lafayette, La they asked a series of questions about what would people "thought about" BS like the city "rationing broadband access like they do water" and silliness about banning religious channels. It was downright embarassing.

The story submission is lame, and the story it's about is too. Anyone have a link to a good story on the same subject?

Re:Push Polling

[zigmeister]

How about Wilson, NC's Public Affairs Manager's blog It's got some decent posts, and some boring stuff. More about the push polling on the front page

Re:Push Polling

[Just Some Guy]

Because I had never heard of the (incredibly vague) term

Example of a push polling question: "would you still vote for Joe Candidate if news of his secret heroin addiction were to become public?" Basically, it's a speech disguised as an opinion poll.

Re:Push Polling

[nine-times]

Well if you want to know what a "push poll" is, you could have googled it and the first thing up would be an article on Wikipedia.

But anyway, the basic idea is that polls should properly be designed to be impartial in themselves. If you're really trying to find out what people think about the President's performance, for example, you might call people and ask, "Do you approve of the President's performance so far?"

If, on the other hand, you aren't interested in what people think, and instead you're hoping to influence opinion, then you might ask something like, "Doesn't it bother you that the President is doing such an obviously awful job?" or "Aren't you bothered by the outrageous amounts of money the President is spending?" That's push-polling.

In the 2000 election, Bush's campaign called around asking something like, "How would you feel if you found out John McCain had an illegitimate black baby after an affair with a black woman?" Now that didn't happen, but the question was defended as "hypothetical" even though many of the people called didn't believe it was hypothetical.

Sometimes when doing a push poll, the idea is to affect the results of the poll so that they can publish them and say, "See, [X]% of the people see thing my way!" But then sometimes, they don't even bother to record the responses because the point is just to try to influence opinion under the guise of a poll.

Re:How can they win?

[Ritchie70]

Its not just roads. As an earlier post pointed out, many city or county governments handle garbage collection, electricity, and/or natural gas.

All of these are handled in other places by private companies.

City of Chicago handles garbage collection.
In the city of Darien, BFI handles garbage collection.

City of Naperville does electricity.
ComEd sells me my electricity.

Re:Merit

[morgan_greywolf]

I agree 100%. And in this instance of Wilson, NC, this is the case. From the Mayor Brian Bowman's blog:

One last note, Wilson tax money does not fund Greenlight (ed note: Wilson's municipal ISP). Citizens who choose Greenlight buy the services just like they would from any other provider.

Re:Merit

[csartanis]

They're a non-profit organization, with 100% of revenue funding the employees and expansion of service.

Re:Well yeah...

[Narpak]

This might be slightly unrelated. But the Norwegian Government decided in 2006 that full broadband coverage should be a goal for the near future. Norway is a long coastal country with some people living in places that are way into the middle of some mountainside; and villages and towns with low population here and there. However eventually it was decided that Internet was pretty much required for modern live, and in fact; was more essential the more in the middle of nowhere you live.

The immediate goal was 98% coverage by the end of 2007 and 100% as soon as it would be possible to get there. At the moment the coverage is at about 99.5% with an estimate that they will reach practically 100% by the end of the year. To achieve this goal they have so far given local governments 850 million NOK to build and improve infrastructure; and ISP and local commercial interests have contributed to; in total about 1.5 billion NOK has been spent.

If you can read Norwegian www.regjeringen.no has more info.
Here is a quote from 2007 by the then Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy; Åslaug Haga
The quote is in Norwegian so I have tried to translate as best I can.

Creation of a broadband infrastructure is an important part of our [the party coalition in Government] goals for the districts. We can not accept that anyone in this country becomes losers in the digital evolution. Broadband also gives opportunities for economic development and growth. To ensure full broadband coverage the Government has decided to stimulate faster expansions of the infrastructure; especially in those areas were it isn't commercially profitable to do so.

Think of this as you will; but despite my disagreements with some of the things said and done by various ministers and the government in general; at one point I agree. Full broadband coverage is essential to modern life. It is a means of communication, of gaining information about what is happening, of paying your bills if the nearest bank is a day away, or an important tool for education or self-education. And much much more. Providing full coverage with affordable broadband should be a goal for any country that wish to ensure their citizens grain a high degree of familiarity with technology; and wish to remain competitive in the global market.

North Carolinians, write or call NC Congress.

[randomaxe]

Most of us are outraged about this, but few of us can do anything about it. If you live in North Carolina, I urge you to contact your state congresspeople and let them know just how you, as a voter, feel about this.

The bills in question are NC Senate bill 1004 and NC House bill 1242. You can find contact information for your state congresspeople here:

http://www.votesmart.org/index.htm

And remember, even if you're a NC resident who doesn't live in Wilson, this is a *state-level* issue, and your opinion counts. Not only that, but if these bills pass, it means no cheap internet for you, either. Be heard now, while it matters.

Re:Econ 101

[Civil_Disobedient]

As was proved during the Reagan era, the rich AND poor BOTH get richer when Government gets out of the way

Wrong. 80% of the population experienced a decrease in income from 1977 to 1988 (Kevin Phillips, The Politics of Rich and Poor, p. 17).

Re:AS someone who worked for a small ISP

[HeronBlademaster]

Had the villagers gotten together and negotiated with the telco directly, then there probably wouldn't have been an issue, saved some money, and one hell of a headache.

I think you missed the last article about this situation - the city did ask the telcos to provide service (after providing marketing demographics), and the telcos said no. They then took the next logical step - they set up their own ISP to serve their needs. I don't see what else they could have done.

Re:Well yeah...

[ktappe]

This is free market 101. Why government sucks.

Are you insane? For a change a government is bringing wonderful service to its taxpayers (low-cost, high-speed internet) and you somehow still make the comment that "government sucks"?? That's not even trolling, it's certifiable.

I am not kidding when I say this: You have a mental disorder. Probably severe cognitive dissonance, but you'd need a full exam to be sure. Please see a therapist. Honestly. No joke.