How the Telecom Lobby is Killing Municipal Broadband. (The Atlantic, 11/4/2011)
Excerpt: Which brings us to this week. After another bruising campaign – into which the telecom lobby poured another reported $300,000 – the people of Longmont voted again on Tuesday. This time, the city got its message straight, the local newspaper editorialized in favor of the measure, and every candidate also on the ballot for the mayor’s office and city council unanimously supported it.
This time the initiative passed, with more than 60 percent of people in favor.
The vote was a major victory for municipal broadband, even if it sounds like a slightly ridiculous one. Longmont didn’t vote to build a broadband network, or to raise taxes to one day build a broadband network, or even to undertake a study group to start thinking about building a broadband network. It simply voted that the city should have the right to decide what to do with largely unused infrastructure it built 15 years ago.
Related post:
Telco continue to get in the way of Longmont's future. (10/7/2011)
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