NTU President: Stand Up for Taxpayers, Reject Muni Broadband Pre-Emption
The FCC should “stand up for taxpayers in North Carolina and Tennessee” Thursday by rejecting petitions seeking pre-emption of anti-municipal broadband laws in those states, said National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp in a statement Wednesday. The agency is expected…
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to approve the petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga and from Wilson, North Carolina (see 1502020037). There have been “numerous examples of failed municipal broadband networks,” Sepp wrote: “From Oregon to Florida, Utah to Vermont, hard-working" residents "have suffered -- paying higher taxes or bearing the burden of lower debt ratings -- when their local leaders decided to enter the broadband market.” Officials from Highland Springs and Holly Springs, North Carolina, as well as business and nonprofit leaders from North Carolina and Tennessee told Chairman Tom Wheeler aide Gigi Sohn and other agency officials in a phone call Tuesday of their inability to get high-speed broadband, said an ex parte filing posted in dockets 14-115 and 14-116 Wednesday. Matthew Shuler, Highlands town director, said small businesses are frustrated about broadband prices and speed limitations, according to the filing. It said Dukenet had offered faster speeds, but when the company was acquired by Time Warner Cable, "the service offerings went away." Comcast and TWC didn't comment.