REVOLT! NC Towns Take Up Legal Arms Against Anti-Municipal Internet Bill

. . .

I. Buying a Bill -- Did Time Warner "Purchase" Legislation?

The local resolutions label the pending legislation a "Time Warner" bill. Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) enjoys a monopoly on high speed cable internet across much of the state. So is the company responsible for the bill?

Well, it certainly seems that way.

As early as 2008 towns in North Carolina devised the idea of bucking Time Warner's monopoly by creating local services. They discussed the idea with residents and received enthusiastic endorsement. Communities including Wilson, North Carolina (Greenlight, Inc.), Salisbury (Fibrant), Davidson (MI-Connection), and Morganton (CoMPAS Cable TV & Internet) launched projects.

Getting loans from the private sector and hiring private contractors the cities set out to create viable services, which eschewed the price gouging of local internet, phone, and cable TV providers.

Time Warner and other local monopolies like landline service provider CenturyLink were bitterly opposed to the plans. They funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations and lobbying money to try to "convince" politicians that the services should be banned.

MORE . . .

http://www.dailytech.com/REVOLT+NC+Towns+Take+Up+Legal+Arms+Against+AntiMunicipal+Internet+Bill/article21385.htm

Fibrant charges $20 per month for what TWC charges $50 for, and the $100 plan is ridiculously fast.

Greenlight is even faster and is about the same price.