Slashdot Mirror
Nearly Half of Colorado Counties Have Rejected a Comcast-Backed Law Restricting City-Run Internet (vice.com)
bumblebaetuna shares a report from Motherboard: In Tuesday's Coordinated Election, two Colorado counties voted on ballot measures to exempt themselves from a state law prohibiting city-run internet services. Both Eagle County and Boulder County voters approved the measures, bringing the total number of Colorado counties that have rejected the state law to 31 -- nearly half of the state's 64 counties. Senate Bill 152 -- which was lobbied for by Big Telecom -- became law in Colorado in 2005, and prohibits municipalities in the state from providing city-run broadband services.
Some cities prefer to build their own broadband network, which delivers internet like a utility to residents, and is maintained through subscription costs. But ever since SB 152 was enacted, Colorado communities have to first bring forward a ballot measure asking voters to exempt the area from the state law before they can even consider starting a municipal broadband service. So that's what many of them have done. In addition to the 31 counties that have voted to overrule the state restrictions, dozens of municipalities in the state have also passed similar ballot measures. Including cities, towns, and counties, more than 100 communities in Colorado have pushed back against the 12-year-old prohibition, according to the Institute for Local Self Reliance.
Some cities prefer to build their own broadband network, which delivers internet like a utility to residents, and is maintained through subscription costs. But ever since SB 152 was enacted, Colorado communities have to first bring forward a ballot measure asking voters to exempt the area from the state law before they can even consider starting a municipal broadband service. So that's what many of them have done. In addition to the 31 counties that have voted to overrule the state restrictions, dozens of municipalities in the state have also passed similar ballot measures. Including cities, towns, and counties, more than 100 communities in Colorado have pushed back against the 12-year-old prohibition, according to the Institute for Local Self Reliance.
In about 2 years 5G wireless will begin rolling out and most Americans will start getting competitively priced, high speed, fixed point-to-point wireless broadband service offered to them. The cable monopoly will be ending for everyone with line of site to a wireless base station.
Just FYI.
The Citizens United verdict made bribery a perfectly legal item, as money is considered free speech.
Government does NOT make jobs. In fact, it destroys them, which is obvious when you look how FDR's socialism denied any chance of economic recoveries until the 40s, and how socialism eventually kills a country (Venezuela, for example).. In fact, because of Libertarian morals, and the purging of socialism out of the US, the stock market is at the highest ever, and the US is seeing the best economy in history. Ayn Rand and her philosophy has been proven correct, time and time again. It is a good read and an antidote to the calls of socialism.
In reality, government should step in with Colorado. The taxpayers should not be paying for Internet access. Companies who know what they are doing and can provide top tier service and support should be doing this. Not government bureaucrats who can't even spell "TCP/IP".