Here’s the latest version of Senate bill 1209, under a different title. The revised bill would suspend for a year any new financing for city or town owned high-speed data services. The N&R’s Mark Binker reports via Twitter that broadband moratorium passes by a 39-5 vote.
While doing a little research on municipal broadband, I came across this Stop the Cap post from Greensboro’s own Jay Ovitorre, who calls the earlier version of Senate bill 1209 “anti-consumer” legislation. (I also noted that Stop the Gap’s other author, Philip Dampier, praised the Winston-Salem Journal editorial that I addressed a couple of weeks ago.)
I probably don’t need to repeat the John Locke Foundation’s position on public broadband, but in case you’re curious, it’s here and here. The broad question obviously is whether or not state government should step in and prevent local governments from going into debt to provide broadband service, or should residents just be aware of what’s going on and fend for themselves.
The merits of public broadband can debated endlessly, but all I know is the Davidson News —-an objective source —-reports that Davidson-Mooresville is in a world of hurt after going deep into debt to provide broadband service.
One of the options being floated is to market the system so that it will grow to a point where it can be sold at a reasonable price.
