CITIES LOATHE LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL ON TELECOM BIZ

As the Legislature winds down it's session this week, one proposal that is very much alive is a bill which would severely limit the ability of city-owned utilities from offering high speed telecommunications services such as DSL, cable delivered telephone or Internet.

House Bill 1325 passed 71-41 on Monday. A companion bill in the Senate could be voted on before the session ends Friday.

The proposal is being pushed by the state's big telecommunications providers: BellSouth, Verizon, and Sprint, and is meant to prevent municipalities from being active competitors. It would require city-owned utilities to notify citizens before they offer high speed telecommunications services (which it seems they would want to do, anyway, to gain customers!), but it would prevent local governments from increasing their service area or subsidizing the service with other income.

It wouldn't be so bad if the big companies provided such services throughout the state, but they don't. BellSouth, Verizon, and Sprint in many cases choose to only offer them in more urban areas, where they can make a nice profit...and shun more rural portions of their service areas. This is where the municipal utility operations can best offer their citizens/customers a product that their larger brethern refuse to. With this bill, those in smaller communities will most likely do without until the big guns decide they can make a buck there.

Me: I am fortunate that I got the whole package (RoadRunner Internet, basic cable, and telephone) through Bright House Networks, and am quite satisfied with the service.