This is interesting. I've suspected that municipal restriction bills
were all related in some way, but this shows that the similarities are
deeper than expected...
Subject: Model Anti-Municipal Broadband Bill
By Glenn Fleishman
Special to Wi-Fi Networking News
Permanently archived at <http://wifinetnews.com/archives/004598.html>
[1] Esme Vos has uncovered (and has available for download) the model
bill for state legislatures to ban municipal broadband: The
inestimable Vos has emerged as a firebrand for fighting back the
rhetoric of incumbent teleopolies that have put out the meme that
there are unfair tax breaks and unfair advantages that a municipal
operation has over private enterprise. This ignores the subsidies
provided--estimated at over $700 per person in Pennsylvania over the
last 10 years of a failed Verizon development plan,
non-refundable--and "taxes" that telcos and cable companies are often
able to collect for their own coffers.
Vos now posts the bill that someone--she'd like to know who--wrote to
distribute to various legislatures under the guise of competition.
Competition means not taking money from taxpayers, charging them by
overpriced tariffs defended to the death, collecting and keeping funds
intended for rural or impoverished citizens to have universal access,
and fighting for the right to squeeze the pipes to prevent interesting
competitive services from rising.
Competition does mean building neutral infrastructure paid for by
access fees that allow all comers to compete on a level playing field
to let the market determine the best use of resources.
It's strange how businesses that hate regulation in theory love how it
supports their business models. Also strange how many folks who claim
to want real markets only really want big businesses to be able to
dictate to their markets what things cost.
I looked at the innards of the Word doc that Esme posted, but the only
secret information it contains is about her computer, not any previous
computers.
URLs referenced:
[1] <http://www.muniwireless.com/archives/000528.html>
Dana�Spiegel
Director, NYCwireless
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.nycwireless.net
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