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June 23, 2005

McCain-Lautenberg Community Broadband Act

By Glenn Fleishman

Two senators counter Rep. Sessions’s pro-incumbent bill with a pro-community networking bill: Pete Sessions, former SBC employee whose wife works at the company and who maintains direct ownership of large Bell stock and option holdings, introduced a brief and terribly broad bill that eliminates essentially all forms of municipal ownership and outsourcing of broadband. The bill he wrote is broad enough to shut down future airport Wi-Fi and other projects beloved by private forms. Republicans and Democrats alike enjoy accusing judges of bias when they have a direct interest in the outcome of a case; shouldn’t conflict of interest apply for legislators without blind trusts, too?

Senators McCain and Lautenberg’s alternative is the Community Broadband Act which will be incorporated into a telecom reform bill, and is backed by the National League of Cities and other groups.

While I have written consistently that municipal broadband isn’t a universal panacea as it is offered portrayed, I also believe strongly that local self-determination on critical development issues is as American (and conservative) as apple pie. Telcos try to paint local municipalities as competing in the same industry they regulate. But municipalities have little to no power over telcos, only state agencies and only in limited ways when telcos act as public utilities—which doesn’t include broadband in many states.

Posted by Glennf at June 23, 2005 7:12 AM

Categories: Municipal

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