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

[Cristóbal Palmer]

On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 10:52 AM, David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 10:29 AM, David Both <
> dboth at millennium-technology.com> wrote:
>
>> So it will basically prevent cities from doing what Wilson, NC did when
>> Time Warner refused to provide decent service by starting their own service.
>> Wilson, by the way provides _symmetric_ 10GB and 20GB (yes Gigabit) service
>> via fibre to the home for about $49. More if you want to pay more. It is
>> considered an infrastructure service like water and electricity.
>
> No, the bill will still allow cities to offer their own service.  It will
> simply require that they not abuse their authority to stomp competing
> private services into the ground.

What competing service have they stomped into the ground? Surely
you're not talking about TWC in Wilson?

> For instance, if Wilson's fibre is strung on city poles, and there's room on
> the poles for another company's fibre as well, but Wilson won't let another
> company string their fibre, that would be illegal.  Or if Wilson subsidizes
> their service and intentionally runs it at a loss so that they can price it
> lower than anyone else could price theirs, that would be illegal.

When has this happened? Please point to specific example of specific
NC cities abusing authority in a way that has caused actual harm to
specific businesses. Links to media reports, court documents, etc.
most welcome.

You yourself have already provided evidence that TWC and other
for-profit entities have not met your ethical standards. Why is city
governance, in your view, inherently more likely to cause harm than
corporate governance in the IP network space? Furthermore, why is the
current lack of choice in the IP network service space better than
your feared future lack of choice (which I dispute will actually come
to pass)?

Until and unless you provide evidence that there's a real potential
for harm, this is just trolling.

Cheers,
-- 
Cristóbal Palmer