At the behest of telecommunications companies, states have resumed enacting legislation to keep municipalities from offering broadband service to their citizens. With passage of legislation in North Carolina, 19 states have restrictions that make owning and operating broadband networks nearly impossible for cities, Melissa Maynard of Stateline reports. The trend slacked off in recent years, hitting a plateau of 15 states in the middle of the last decade, but has resumed with Republican control of more legislative chambers.
North Carolina's new law does not prohibit municipal broadband, but has complex rules that municipals must follow: paying the state an amount equal to what private providers pay in corporate income, sales and use and franchise taxes; and restricting financing to revenues from broadband services, prohibiting the use of other city funds, Maynard reports.
Supporters of this legislation, like Melissa Buscher, vice president of communications for Time Warner, argue municipals receive an unfair advantage over the private sector by not paying taxes and controlling "everything from 'pole attachments' to the permitting process for access to public rights-of-way." Brian Bowman, public-affairs director for the city of Wilson, N.C., which has made broadband available to its citizens, calls the legislation "a de-facto ban on municipal broadband." A city could build a network but could never operate it, he told Maynard. (Read more)
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