[TriLUG] OT: URGENT: H.129 to be heard in Thursday's Finance Committee!

[Michael Peters]

On 03/15/2011 10:12 AM, David Burton wrote:

> If you want to let cities abuse their authority to stomp out private
> competition, then go ahead and oppose this bill. I don't. That's why I
> support HB-129.

To say that this will kill competition is unfair and not true. The 
majority of markets don't have any real competition, so there's nothing 
to kill :) This bill would make it harder for them to not only have 
competition, but even access to high-speed internet in some areas.

But basically it comes down to this: Is it time for high-speed internet 
to become infrastructure like roads, water, power, gas, trash pickup, etc.

There's a lot of room for disagreement on this point, but I think the 
answer is yes. If a local government can provide a high standard of 
service for a better and lower rate than existing telecoms (which I 
think Wilson is a great example that they can) then I think that 
strengthens the argument.

Public libraries haven't killed book stores. The US Postal Service 
hasn't killed FedEx or UPS. Providing a base infrastructure for citizens 
so that businesses can thrive is, I believe a good function for government.

I believe we have reached the point where high-speed internet is an 
infrastructure commodity and the more we let companies like AT&T or TWC 
control that infrastructure and prevent communities from trying to 
provide that service to their citizens the more we will fall behind 
countries that don't have such strong telecom lobbies.

-- 
Michael Peters
Plus Three, LP