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Senators, including Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio, have signed a letter to the Federal Communications Commission opposing municipal broadband:
In a rare senatorial act, full-time Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio joined with a handful of fellow legislators on Friday in an attempt to block local municipalities from undercutting big telecom companies by providing cheap, fast internet service.
Rubio, who is raising campaign cash from the telecom industry for his presidential campaign, fired off a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to allow states to block municipal broadband services. The letter was the latest salvo in a long-running effort by the major telecom companies to outlaw municipal broadband programs that have taken off in cities such as Lafayette, Louisiana, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, because they pose a threat to a business model that calls for slow, expensive internet access without competition.
In Chattanooga, for instance, city officials set up a service known as "The Gig," a municipal broadband network that provides data transfers at one gigabit per second for less than $70 a month — a rate that is 50 times faster than the average speed American customers have available through private broadband networks.
AT&T, Cox Communications, Comcast, and other broadband providers, fearing competition, have used their influence in state government to make an end-run around local municipalities. Through surrogates like the American Legislative Exchange Council, the industry gets states to pass laws that ban municipal broadband networks, despite the obvious benefits to both the municipalities and their residents.
[...] Rubio's presidential campaign has relied heavily on AT&T lobbyist Scott Weaver, the public policy co-chair of Wiley Rein, a law firm that also is helping to litigate against the FCC's effort to help municipal broadband. As one of Rubio's three lobbyist-bundlers, Weaver raised $33,324 for Rubio's presidential campaign, according to disclosures. Rubio's campaign fundraising apparatus is also managed in part by Cesar Conda, a lobbyist who previously served as Rubio's chief of staff. Registration documents show that Conda now represents AT&T.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday December 15 2015, @10:29PM
Break up the phone and cable companies but this time we break up the phone company the right way. Company A owns the last mile and is a regulated utility who doesn't innovate lot and just pays regular utility company dividends to shareholders. It sells access to all at regulated rates including to Company B from the breakup that sells dialtone, data and for a little longer, traditional cable TV service. Along with Company B you can then have Company C-Z also get into the game.
There is no one "Right way" to delineate who provides service. Your plan is as unworkable as any other mess created by any other so-called "visionary with a plan" (arguably the most dangerous man in the world. Your plan would NEVER have worked when bell was broken up, because dial tone and first-switch access had to be provided the last mile, It was an analog world.
Its different now, and because its different now, its all packets, nothing but net. And there is no real reason you can't buy telephone service from a provider in New York City and Oslo Norway at the same time over the same fiber. But that is NOT where we where when the Bells were broken up. But hey, hind sight is easy, isn't it!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.