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

City-owned ISP

[J'raxis]

The only reason this ISP is so cheap is that, like any other government project, it's being funded by your tax dollars. (Note that their website says it's being paid for through bonds---well, guess where the money to pay off bonds comes from? Taxes the city collects. Municipal bonds are nothing more than deferred taxation.) I could sell you Internet service for $0.01/mo if I could just steal money to make up the difference, too.

Time Warner is one of the scummier cable companies* (they're a government-granted monopolist, like all cable companies, so they get no support from me), but something like this is something that should be opposed---if "city-owned" ISPs start catching on, you can say goodbye to private ones. Who's going to be able to compete against a company who can undercut competition by lowering their prices and making up the difference with public funding? And just wait until the city starts passing ordinances or engaging in other shenanigans to limit competition with their ISP. That's almost always what happens when governments own businesses that compete with private businesses. Being the holders of a monopoly on legitimate force, they can't resist.

Oh, and since this is government-owned, has anyone looked into whether or not this company will be forcing filtering or anything else heinous on their customers?

* That honor probably goes to Comcast.