Posts Tagged ‘Wilson’
Friday, May 20th, 2011
 Lawrence Lessig RALEIGH, NC -A bill to restrict municipal broadband efforts in North Carolina has drawn national attention. Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard Law professor well known for his expertise in Internet legal matters, has written an open letter on the Huffington Post urging NC Gov. Bev Perdue to veto the bill. Perdue has until midnight tonight to decide whether or not to sign or veto the bill.
“North Carolina is an overwhelmingly rural state. Relative to the communities it competes with around the globe, it has among the slowest and most expensive Internet service. No economy will thrive in the 21st century without fast, cheap broadband, linking citizens, and enabling businesses to compete,” Lessig writes in the post.
That’s why several municipalities in the state, such as Wilson, Salisbury and others, created their own city networks.
“These networks have been extraordinarily effective. The prices they offer North Carolinians is a fraction of the comparable cost of commercial network providers. The speed they offer is also much much faster,” Lesig notes.
Lesig notes that many communities and businesses in and out of the state oppose the bill.
Lesig argues, as we have repeatedly, that the Internet is as much essential infrastructure in the 21st century as electricity and water.
Stand with the majority of NC citizens
“And communities that rely solely upon private companies to provide public infrastructure will always have second-rate, or inferior, service,” he writes.
We should note that Time Warner Cable just this week boosted its Internet speed substantially for all NC Triangle area subscribers, but still falls short of the speeds offered via municipal broadband networks in the state such as Wilson’s.
Lesig urges Gov. Perdue to “Stand with the majority of North Carolina’s citizens, and affirm the right of communities to provide not just the infrastructure of yesterday — schools, roads, public lighting, public police forces, and fire departments — but also the infrastructure of tomorrow — by driving competition to provide the 21st century’s information superhighway.” — Allan Maurer
Additional resources:
Tags: Gov. Bev Perdue, Huffington Post, Lawrence Lesig, Legal, muncipal broadband networks, municipal broadband battles, Municipal broadband in NC, NC, restricting municipal broadband, Salisbury, Wilson
Posted in Carolinas, Internet/New Media, IT, Legal, North Carolina | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 9th, 2011
 RALEIGH, NC – Despite the fact that seven of the ten cities with the worst broadband deals from commercial providers are in North Carolina, the NC General Assembly has accepted Senate changes to its bill restricting municipal efforts to build their own broadband networks. The bill now goes to NC Gov. Bev Perdue for signing, although she has not commented on her position.
Five NC cities that have already created municipal broadband networks, Wilson, Salisbury, Morganton, Davidson and Mooresville, are exempt from most of the bill’s restrictions, although their coverage areas would be limited.
Telecom firms such as Time Warner Cable have argued that the municipal broadband networks have an unfair advantage, while the municipalities complain that the commercial providers do not offer high speed service in their areas and the lack hurts business.
Cable and phone companies have launched strong lobbying efforts to restrict municipal broadband efforts in other states. Frequently significant contributors to political candidates and able to mount well-funded lobbying, they have frequently been successful.
The NC bill requires municipalities to hold public hearings on plans to build broadband networks, separate the business from other municipal government services financially, and prohibits offering services below cost. It also requires voter approval in a referendum to borrow money to build the networks. It does exempt cities that can show that more than 50 percent of their households have no access to high-speed Internet access or only have satellite provider access.
Seven of the ten worst cities in NC
Bandwidth.com, which does broadband mapping, shows that seven of the ten U.S. cities with the worst broadband connections at price per Mbps are in North Carolina. They include Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Wilmington, and Charlotte. Columbia, SC, is also on the list. South Carolina is also considering a bill to restrict municipal broadband.
Nationally, 130 communities own wireless broadband networks.
We have reported previously that the fastest and cheapest broadband networks are city run in the south.
A group called the Institute for Local Self-Reliance says that restricting municipal broadband would hurt job creation in NC.
Additional resources:
The municipal broadband battles rages on
Here’s an excellent resource with extensive links on municipal broadband efforts:
Baller Herbst Law Group: Herbst Law
States that have already passed laws limiting municipal broadband:
State Barriers to Community Broadband Services
Wikipedia entry on municipal broadband
Municipal Wireless Snapshot report:
Fast Company: Time Warner’s Antics in Wilson, NC Give another reason to snip the cable
List of municipal broadband network organizations.
An older, but contrary view from the Reason Foundation:
Municipal broadband fails again
Fastest and cheapest US broadband systems are city run in the South
For more on the commercial providers positions:
www.techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=7334
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Davidson, Gov. Bev Perdue, Mooresville, Morganton, Municipal broadband, NC General Assembly restrict city broadband efforts, Salisbury, seven of ten worst broadband deals in NC cities, Wilson
Posted in Carolinas, Economic Development, Government/Defense, Internet/New Media, North Carolina, Telecommunications | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
By Allan Maurer
 RALEIGH, NC – The North Carolina state House has approved a bill that would restrict the efforts of municipalities to create their own broadband Internet services.
The bill, which supporters say levels the playing field for commercial and municipal providers, passed 81-37 and now goes to the state Senate.
It restricts municipalities from borrowing money for capital costs without voter approval and bars offering Internet service below cost and prevents cities from using funds from other city utilities.
The bill will not affect cities that have already established their own broadband networks, such as Wilson and Salisbury.
Commercial providers argue that municipal broadband services are unfair because governments have inherent advantages.
Cities have argued that they cannot get commercial providers to deliver economically priced high speed service.
Seven of the ten worst cities in NC
Bandwidth.com, which does broadband mapping, shows that seven of the ten U.S. cities with the worst broadband connections at price per Mbps are in North Carolina. They include Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Wilmington, and Charlotte. Columbia, SC, is also on the list. South Carolina is also considering a bill to restrict municipal broadband.
Nationally, 130 communities own wireless broadband networks.
We have reported previously that the fastest and cheapest broadband networks are city run in the south.
A group called the Institute for Local Self-Reliance says that restricting municipal broadband would hurt job creation in NC.
Tags: Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Municipal broadband networks, NC State unveils new entrepreneurship facility for students, Raleigh, Salisbury, Wilmington, Wilson, Winston Salem
Posted in Carolinas, Economic Development, Hardware, Internet/New Media, North Carolina | Comments Off
Friday, March 18th, 2011
 By Allan Maurer
RALEIGH, NC – As we predicted months ago, North Carolina’s General Assembly is once again attempting to corral the municipal broadband movement in the state. Various attempts to hamstring municipal broadband efforts in the state failed in previous sessions, despite powerful lobbying efforts by telecom and cable providers.
Currently, Wilson, Salisbury, Laurinburg, Morganton, Davidson, and Mooresville run municipal networks. One study shows that municipal networks are faster and cheaper than the commercial providers services.
This time, NC House Bill 129 would require municipal broadband providers to follow all the same state, federal, and local regulations as private firms and pay the same amount of taxes that a commercial company does. The commercial telecom and cable providers argue this is merely “leveling the field.”
The bill exempts cities that have already created municipal networks from some of the bill’s provisions and it would not apply in areas where half or more of the residents do not have access to commercial broadband service.
Wilson’s $28 million system has approximately 5,600 customers and an independent consultant has said both city and Time Warner Cable customers saved more than $1 million because of the competition, according to reports.
The previous bill aimed at hobbling municipal broadband efforts never made it out of the Finance Committee, which is considering the current bill. It faces debate in the state House and Senate if it gets out of committee this time.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Davidson, House Bill 129, Laurinburg, Morganton, Morresville, Municipal broadband, NC General Assembly, Raleigh, Salisbury, Time Warner Cable, Wilson
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Monday, February 28th, 2011
 RALEIGH, NC – The Institute for Local Self-Reliance says a proposed North Carolina law would stifle innovation and hurt job creation by halting new community broadband efforts and restricting those already in operation.
It says, “While the rest of the world is working to become more innovative and competitive, the North Carolina General Assembly is considering a bill that will stifle innovation, hurt job creation and slow economic development. The Bill, H129/S87 will effectively prevent any community from building a broadband network and impose onerous restrictions on existing networks, including Wilson’s Greenlight and Salisbury’s Fibrant.
“Greenlight and Fibrant are the most technologically advanced citywide networks in the state, comparative to the best available in the U.S. and international peers, according to a study released by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in November, 2010.”
It adds, “This bill will protect the aging networks of incumbent cable companies—furthering their effective monopolies—that have refused to invest in newer, faster technologies.”
“This bill is a job and competitiveness killer. I don’t know why North Carolina wants to protect old technology, but if they want to get on the information super highway in a horse and buggy—the world is going to pass them by,” said Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Telecommunications as Commons Initiative.
The bill says it is an act to “protect jobs,” a claim that puzzles Mitchell. “Community owned networks create jobs both directly and indirectly – and there is zero evidence they have resulted in the elimination of any jobs.”
Most communities in North Carolina have access only to cable and DSL broadband, which offers slower speeds and less reliability than that of the more modern fiber-to-the-home technology used by Greenligh and Fibrant. AT&T’s next generation network, called U-Verse, has some fiber-optics but remains limited by its reliance on copper for the connection to houses.
Time Warner Cable has been slow in updating its cable networks to the most recent technology, though even that is not competitive with fiber-optic networks.
Mitchell believes that communities represent the only opportunity for broadband competition in the current regulatory environment. “Private cable companies refuse to overbuild each other, phone companies struggle to compete with cable speeds, and wireless lags greatly behind wired networks in offering broadband. This is why communities are building fiber-optic networks and why companies like TWC fight so hard to outlaw them.”
We have been reporting on North Carolina’s attempts to limit community broadband for more than a year. See:
www.techjournalsouth.com/2010/11/new-analysis-shows-community-owned-broadband-is-cheaper-and-faster/
www.techjournalsouth.com/2010/08/fastest-and-cheapest-us-broadband-systems-are-city-run-in-the-south/
Tags: Chris Mitchell, Community Broadband, Fibrant, Greenlight, Institute for Local Self-reliance, NC, NCbill H129/S87, Raleigh, Salisbury, telecom, Wilson
Posted in Economic Development, Internet/New Media, North Carolina, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
 By Allan Maurer
RESEARCH TRIANGLE, NC – North Carolina consumers and businesses would pay more for slower Internet access if communities are preempted from building broadband infrastructure according to a new analysis released today by the Institute for Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project.
Since the new speaker of the North Carolina House, Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg, supported banning community broadband service, “It would boggle my mind if Time Warner took its lobbyists and went home now,” says Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Telecommunications as Commons Initiative.
“Many communities are looking at the success of these networks and want to duplicate them,” he says.
Recent years have seen attempts in the General Assembly to ban or limit community networks and a new bill in 2011 is inevitable. The bill could derail North Carolina’s goal to be a hotbed for innovation and technology and harm the economy by hurting small businesses. This analysis shows that community fiber networks are faster and cheaper than incumbent cable and telephone networks in North Carolina.
“North Carolina would harm its economic future if it decides to limit broadband competition,” says Mitchell. “Communities should have the freedom to build their own networks. Time after time they’ve proven better for subscribers.”
Price and service comparison favors community systems
The New Rules Project’s latest analysis compared the Internet service options and prices available to residents of both Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area to those available to residents of Salisbury and Wilson.
Salisbury and Wilson because both built community fiber networks that offer faster connections to residents and businesses at more affordable prices. They offer 100mbs speeds and higher that dwarf most offerings from commercial providers.
New Rules Project analysts are concerned that banning community networks would hit North Carolina small businesses—both in major metro areas and in rural areas—especially hard. Internet speed, cost, and reliability are already drivers of business location—and can only be expected to increase in importance. Upstream and downstream speeds impact the effectiveness of digital age business necessities that increasingly depend on “the cloud.”
“The reliance on big national phone and cable companies isn’t working. They are too reluctant to invest in the broadband infrastructure we
need to remain competitive, which is why we have seen communities step up to build their own faster, more reliable, and less expensive broadband networks,” says Mitchell.
The commercial providers and their allies in state government claim that municipalities have unfair advantages in the commercial realm and claim their attempts to halt, limit or forbid community networks is merely an effort to “level the playing field.”
They also argued that the bill proposed last year would grandfather in already existing networks, but Mitchell says a close reading of the bill suggests that’s only true if “They never spend another dime on the system.” That means they could not upgrade, improve, or fix their networks, essentially, he says.
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics.
The rules call for: Decisions made by those impacted communities accepting responsibility for the welfare of their members and the next generation. Households and communities possessing or owning sufficient productive capacity to generate real wealth. NewRules.org discusses the importance of rules and catalogs the best. We make the rules and the rules make us.”
For more information see:
Tags: Charlotte, community broadband faster and cheaper, NC, New Rules project, Raleigh Durham, Salisbury, Wilson
Posted in Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports, Viewpoint | Comments Off
Friday, August 20th, 2010
 Christopher Mitchell By Chistopher Mitchell
Opelika, Alabama is the latest community in the Southeast to move toward a community owned broadband network.
Last week citizens approved a fiber-to-the-home network owned by the public power utility to expand telecom competition and invest in smart-grid services.
Though major telecom companies have long argued that broadband has plenty of competition, many communities beg to differ.
General dissatisfaction
This is not an uprising against a single cable or phone company, rather general dissatisfaction with de facto monopolist providers who focus first on shareholder returns rather than community needs.
Throughout the south, nearly every national cable co has had to deal with an upstart community that chose to own its information infrastructure: Comcast (Chattanooga, TN), Cox (Lafayette, LA), Time Warner (Wilson, NC), and Charter (Opelika, AL).
Fastest and least expensive broadband systems are municipal
The trend is fascinating: the single fastest citywide broadband tier available in the US comes from Chattanooga with 150Mbps.
Probably the most economical connection in the nation lies in Lafayette with 10Mbps for a mere $30/month (as with most community fiber networks, Lafayette and Chattanooga only offer symmetrical services – ensuring users can publish content as readily as downloading it).
Bristol, Virginia was first
In fact, the very first city-owned triple-play fiber-to-the-home network in the nation started in Bristol, Virginia, where it has brought hundreds of high paying jobs to people who sorely need them.
Opelika’s 62 percent yes vote was necessary because Alabama law requires a referendum before communities build a network offering cable services – laws pushed by deep-pocketed incumbent providers who understand that communities themselves are the most likely source of broadband competition.
Due to the massive upfront investment, long payback, and difficulty of competing with an entrenched incumbent, the private sector has little appetite for overbuilding.
Why communities build their own networks
Wireless may be competitive against DSL, but Wimax is no match for DOCSIS 3 cable networks, which are more reliable and offer higher capacity in general. Fiber-to-the-home offers much higher reliability, capacity, and headroom for upgrades but wireline companies with little competition see little pressure to upgrade.
This is why communities are building their own FTTH networks – they want to remain technologically competitive with the rest of the world (and superior to perhaps 95 percent of the US) but recognize they have to invest in this infrastructure themselves – just as many of them did when private companies saw little reason to offer electricity to everyone at reasonable rates.
Battle looms again in NC
In North Carolina, Time Warner Cable’s lobbyists have consistently fought to outlaw community networks (even in areas the private sector has no interest in serving).
The effort failed earlier this summer despite making greater inroads than previous attempts. They will undoubtedly be back in Raleigh to try again next session – lobbyists are a tiny expense compared to the cost of a truly competitive landscape for these companies.
Christopher Mitchell is the Director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. He writes regularly about community networks on MuniNetworks.org and has published a comprehensive report about such networks: Breaking the Broadband Monopoly: How Communities are Building the Networks They Need .
TechJournal South has covered the efforts of states to regulate municipal broadband for some time. North Carolina has thus far turned back two efforts to put restrictions on the efforts of cities to create their own broadband networks, which one has done and several are planning. Both previous articles below contain links to numerous background pieces on the topic.
See: Six months to act
Municipal broadband battle rages on
Tags: AL, Bristol, Charter, Chattanooga, Comcast, Cox, LA, Lafayette, Municipal broadband, NC, Opelika, Time Warner, TN, VA, Wilson
Posted in Alabama, Carolinas, North Carolina, Other SE, Potomac, Telecommunications, Tennessee, Viewpoint, Virginia | Comments Off
Monday, July 19th, 2010
By Allan Maurer
 RALEIGH, NC – North Carolina legislators recently killed a proposed bill by state Senator David Hoyle (D-Gaston) that would have put a moratorium on municipal broadband efforts, but the issue is likely to arise again in January, say community activists in favor of continuing to allow cities to build their own broadband networks.
Hoyle’s bill, S1209 was just the most recent of four attempts backed by incumbent providers (AT&T, Time Warner Cable & others) to stop cities from creating their own broadband networks.
In North Carolina, the city of Wilson has built its own successful broadband network that offers higher than normal broadband Internet speeds, cable TV, and phone service at prices lower than competing private providers.
Wilson’s Greenlight service, which provides speeds 10 times faster than the incumbents typically offer, seems to have given the city some competitive muscle. Time Warner Cable, which employs 8,500 people in NC, raised rates up to 52 percent in Cary and increased prices on its digital sports and games tier by 41 percent in the Triangle. TWC did not, however, raise rates in Wilson or increase the sports and games tier price there.
Incumbents lobbying nationally
The town of Salisbury wants to launch a similar project.
But incumbent private providers are waging national lobbying campaigns to keep cities and towns from building their own networks. Eighteen other states erected barriers to stifle community broadband. Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas established a full ban.
Craig Settles who started Communities United for Broadband (http://www.communitiesforbroadband.com/)with Greensboro’s Jay Ovitorre to oppose the efforts of private providers and the legislature to limit municipal broadband, tells us, “North Carolina is the beachhead.”
Settles says, “We’re not just fighting the incumbent battles every six months. We’re also dealing with the logistics of getting people engaged on a local level.”
Settles says Google’s recent request for applications from communities for its experimental ultra-high speed broadband system, which drew responses from 40 NC municipalities, including Raleigh, Durham, and Greensboro, helped engage communities in considering the issue.
Just by having a plan on what they might do with the higher speeds promised by Google may provide a spark and show municipalities a path to having better broadband, Settles believes.
So, Settles and Ovitorre decided it was time to create an online presence via Facebook, Google Groups and a Web site to get communities more focused on the issue and created Communities United For Broadband.
Supporters of bills to limit municipal broadband efforts have mounted various arguments. Incumbents say they are just “trying to level the playing field,” maintaining that municipalities have advantages private firms do not. Sen. Hoyle even maintained he was just trying to protect municipalities from themselves because they have no experience in providing broadband service.
Municipalities who want to build their own high speed networks see broadband as a utility as necessary for economic development as water, sewer and electricity.
Cities have the drive
“It touches so many things,” says Settles. “It’s necessary to get a job, to get basic healthcare information, for education, and economic development.”
He also suggests at that municipalities such as Wilson seem to have done just fine implementing a broadband system with faster speeds than incumbents generally provide with only a small city team and consultants. “Instead of moaning about creating a level playing field, the incumbents should send an engineering team to Wilson to figure out how they did it,” Settles says.
“Cities have the drive to create the next innovation in broadband. Incumbents don’t,” Settles maintains. “They own the problem and they’re in the best position to develop a solution. This is such a vital infrastructure you want to leave the door open to whoever comes up with the right solution.”
Sen. Hoyle has said he is not affected by the incumbents lobbying for the municipal broadband limits, but the Time Warner Political Action Committee contributed $6,000 to his campaign in 2009.
In 2008, AT&T and Embarq PACs contributed a total of $291,750 to legislative and statewide candidates and party committees.
The issue is bound to come up again, so Settles sees the next six months as a time of doing the trenchwork to get ready for the next battle.
“If a fairly decent number of communities move their projects forward, engaging in the process, they’ll be in a stronger position than they are currently next time the issue comes up after January,” Settles notes. For one thing, he says, “Legislators from those areas would be less likely to go against it (municipal broadband.)
For more information see:
Previously on TechJournal South:
NC considering bill to limit municipal broadband efforts (more perspective on the incumbents’ position)
The municipal broadband battle rages on
Other resources:
Excellent resource with extensive links on municipal broadband efforts:
Baller Herbst Law Group
State Barriers to Community Broadband Services
Wikipedia entry on municipal broadband
Municipal Wireless Snapshot report
Fast Company: Time Warner’s Antics in Wilson, NC Give another reason to snip the cable
List of municipal broadband network organizations
Tags: AT&T, Craig Settles, Embarq, Google broadband experiment, Jay Ovitorre, legislative issues, Municipal broadband, NC, NC State Sen. Hoyle, Salisbury, Time Warner Cable, Wilson
Posted in Carolinas, Economic Development, Internet/New Media, North Carolina | Comments Off
|
|
|
