Best Broadband

A bill that would have seriously hampered local community fiber to the home deployments has been sent to a study committee, according to the Greensboro News & Record. The bill, which was heavily lobbied for (and likely co-written) by Time Warner Cable lobbyists, took specific aim at municipal broadband deployments in the State that offer symmetrical fiber at speeds up to 100Mbps. The bill probably won't see serious legislative action for at least a year, according to the News Record.

"This thing needs to be studied, it needs to be discussed," co-sponsor Ty Harrell tells the Record. Hansell, a North Carolina Democrat, has made it fairly clear through comments to the press that he wasn't fully versed in the technical specifics of his own bill, which would have banned North Carolina cities from taking advantage of broadband stimulus funds, while hog tying them with restrictions not imposed upon regional incumbents.

While that helps protect Time Warner Cable revenues, it doesn't do much for State residents, local businesses, local health care infrastructure, local government operations, or the large corporations that benefit from greater broadband penetration. Companies such as Google, Alcatel Lucent and Intel came out against the measure earlier this week, arguing it harmed both the private and public sectors.

According to Indyweek, lobbyists pushing the bill had opposed further study -- after a contentious and public debate of facts led to the failure of a similar bill back in 2007. Opposition to this latest bill was fueled in part by backlash to Time Warner Cable's metered billing attempt -- which helped galvanize already annoyed consumers into a public show of opposition at this morning's vote.

Update: It looks like this battle isn't quite finished yet, with Time Warner Cable lobbyists trying to speed through a companion Senate version of this bill Thursday morning...
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