[TriLUG] TW and Embarq work to keep Wilson style internet from spreading

[Mark Turner]

Jeremy Portzer wrote:

> It's another thing 
> to lose out to a government that LEGISLATES their way into your market. 
>  Telecommunications companies always have this risk, and hence they 
> always have lots of government lobbying like this.

The issue is that Greenlight didn't legislate its way *into* TWC's 
market,  but that TWC is trying to legislate Greenlight *out* of the 
market. TWC wants to burden public Internet services in ways that aren't 
required of itself.

One part of the bill, for example, would make services like Greenlight 
subject to oversight by the state Public Utilties Commission. Do what? 
Didn't TWC battle for years to keep its Internet service from being 
considered a utility and therefore subject to regulation? It's funny how 
now that some cities want their own Internet systems, well, Internet 
should be regulated! At least *public* Internet systems, of course. 
TWC's would still be unregulated. How's that for a "level playing field?"

TWC makes use of public rights-of-way, without which they'd have to 
spend untold millions negotiating with each and every property owner. 
TWC also connects to an Internet that for the first 26 years of its 
existence was a publicly-funded resource that shunned commercial 
activity. In these cases and others, TWC has profited handsomely from 
the investments of government and for them to now try to shut the 
governments out is ludicrous. It was government that created the 
Internet and government should not be kicked out by some upstart cable 
company too big for its britches.

The good news is that today the bill got put in a study committee where 
it will be stuck for at least a year and quite possibly never see the 
light of day. I don't think I can properly explain the repercussions of 
today's vote yet so I'll wait until I have it figured out.

On a related note you might find this interesting, Jeremy. The 
Australian government is so sick of Telstra's mismanagement of Internet 
access that they're building their own fiber-optic network:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/07/broadband-internet-australia

--
Mark Turner
www.markturner.net