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Appeals Court Decision Kills North Carolina Town's Gigabit Internet (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: In early August, the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled the FCC had no authority to prevent states from imposing restrictions on municipal internet. This was a result of the FCC stepping in last year in an effort to "remove barriers to broadband investment and competition." However, the courts sided with the states, which said that the FCC's order impeded on state rights. In the end, this ruling clearly favored firmly entrenched big brand operators like Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and ATT, which lobbied hard to keep competition at bay. The federal ruling specifically barred municipal internet providers from offering service outside of their city limits, denying them from providing service to under-served communities. The fallout from the federal court's rejection of the FCC order to extend a lifeline to municipal internet providers has claimed another victim. The small community of Pinetops, North Carolina -- population 1,300 -- will soon have its gigabit internet connection shut off. Pinetops has been the recipient of Greenlight internet service, which is provided by the neighboring town of Wilson. The town of Wilson has been providing electric power to Pinetops for the past 40 years, and had already deployed fiber through the town in order to bolster its smart grid initiative. What's infuriating to the Wilson City Council and to the Pinetop residents that will lose their high-speed service is that the connections are already in place. There's no logical reason why they should be cut off, but state laws and the lobbyists supporting those laws have deemed what Greenlight is doing illegal. Provide power to a neighboring town -- sure that's OK. Provide better internet to a neighboring town -- lawsuit
Mr. Goings went even further, talking about the bigger picture when it comes to “lighting up” poor and underserved areas of our country: This is bigger than Wilson. This is about the rural areas, particularly in eastern North Carolina, because the majority of the area does not present enough profitability to attract the private-sector investment
In other words, what Mr. Goings is saying is that it would be an act of charity to serve rural areas. The problem that I have with this situation is that Greenlight is not charitable organization that runs on donations; it is a government entity that collects revenue through taxation (i.e. coercion). This situation is being presented as if the people of Pinetops are having their rights violated; in reality, it is the taxpayers in Wilson who are being forced to subsidize a neighboring community.
The solution to this problem seems simple enough: Greenlight should be privatized. After that, if Greenlight would like to support neighboring towns, then it should solicit donations. If Greenlight is not able to collect enough money to fund service for Pinetops, then that dose not prove the market failed; instead, it proves that the residents of Wilson, when presented with an honest choice, do not want to subsidize their neighbors.
No one will provide service as long as Greenlight is there. What people can't seem to grasp is that nobody can make money when there are multiple service providers because no single provider can get enough customers to be profitable. People complain about monopolies, but the fact is that due to the immense cost of the infrastructure, this is a natural monopoly and should be treated as such.
To be fair, North Carolina was worried that there would be transsexuals in their gigabit.
You are welcome on my lawn.