North Carolina House Passes Anti-Community Fiber Bill
30th March 2011
These bills have grown less popular as people became aware of them, and started to ask basic questions, like: “why should a huge corporation dictate what my town or city does with its own infrastructure?” Or: “Why should a random partisan bloviator 2,000 miles away dictate what my town or city does with its own infrastructure?” The fact is that these communities wouldn’t be putting this time and effort into infrastructure improvements if local monopolies and duopolies were meeting their needs.
Good question.
Time Warner Cable, who in most markets has the luxury of lagging on network upgrades due to limited competition, isn’t sure what to do with this “problem.” Like most large corporations unused to competition, they’ve gone the protectionist route and have spent millions lobbying North Carolina lawmakers like Rep. Marilyn Avila. As a result, well-lobbied North Carolina politicians do what well-lobbied politicians always do, and last night passed Time Warner Cable’s anti-community fiber bill with a vote of 81-37.
Your tax dollars at work … for Time-Warner.