North Carolina votes today to cripple community broadband, notes Broadband Reports. The incumbent ISPs in North Carolina (AT&T, Time Warner Cable and CenturyLink) have tried repeatedly to get lawmakers to pass laws banning and/or crippling community efforts to wire themselves with fiber — despite the fact nobody else will.
Bans were passed in more than a dozen states before public scrutiny over the practice slowed such lobbying efforts.
In North Carolina, the small city of Wilson planned municipal fiber deployments to provide speeds none of these ISPs are willing to. Wilson offers fiber to the home service that beats the best Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink or AT&T have to offer. Stop The Cap notes that after very little public input, North Carolina lawmakers and bill sponsor Rep. Marilyn Avila (R-Wake County) are trying to fast track the bill today with a quick chat and a committee vote.
Legislators produced a bill that would require all Internet service providers in the state to provide maps and other data about service availability to the e-NC Authority, a state agency tasked with connecting every household in North Carolina to broadband.
Lobbyists for cable and phone companies have objected to the proposal, arguing to the select committee that the information requirements are too demanding, data in some cases isn’t available, and that giving it to a state agency means placing proprietary business information in the public domain.
The city of Portland, Oregon, launched a fresh broadband initiative last month to improve access to fast Internet connections. It gathered telecom industry representatives, civic officials and community groups to craft a report on how to provide faster, cheaper Web connections to small businesses and residents across the city.
Portland’s Office of Cable Communications and Franchise Management, was authorized by the City Council to develop a citywide Broadband Strategic Plan and report back to Council by June 30, 2011 (resolution).
In 2006, Portland commissioned a $139,000 study of a city-backed fiber-optic network to improve regional Web access. But the plan stalled the following year in the face of a half-billion-dollar price tag.
In 2008, municipal WiFi startup MetroFi, pulled the plug on their privately financed Wi-Fi network that the city commissioned in hopes of providing free wireless access throughout Portland.
Portland’s failed experiment in free Wi-Fi may yet bear fruit, albeit on a very modest scale, says Mike Rogoway of the Oregonian. The city turned over about 100 of the wireless devices to Personal Telco, along with several of the “gateways” necessary to connect them.
Russell Senior, Personal Telco’s president, said PTP hasn’t run a full battery of tests on their installation, but he estimates it’s providing free Wi-Fi within a radius of about 300 feet. Personal Telco may repurpose more of the devices elsewhere in the city if donors provide the backhaul.
