Monday, July 2, 2012

AT&T, ALEC Have Their Way With South Carolina Legislature


South Carolina passes bill against municipal broadband. Ars Technica, 6/29/2012)

Excerpt: Dampier and others also allege that the bill was crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative think-tank that lobbies local, state, and federal representatives to push for bills and craft ideal draft legislation that are conducive to its values. On its website, ALEC says that cities should not be allowed to create broadband utilities in competition with private corporations. 

"If municipalities are inclined to pursue broadband initiatives then certain safeguards must be put in place in order to ensure that private providers, with whom the municipality will compete with, are not disadvantaged by the municipality in the exercise of its bonding and taxing authority, management of rights of way, assessment of fees or taxes, or in any other way," the organization writes.

Sugar pie, honey bunch:
AT&T Working to Kill South Carolina Community Broadband. Despite Being Largely Uninterested in Serving Those Customers. (DSL Reports, 6/8/2012)

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