<div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">catharine Rice</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ricecb@yahoo.com">ricecb@yahoo.com</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 2:30 PM<br>
Subject: Anti-Muni BBND Bill:Salisbury's neighbors to Leg: Don't Kill our Fibrant Dreams<br>To: Catharine Rice <<a href="mailto:SEATOApres@yahoo.com">SEATOApres@yahoo.com</a>><br><br><br><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="font:inherit"><h1>Salisbury's Neighbors to State Legislature: Don't Kill Our Fibrant Dreams</h1>
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By <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.muninetworks.org/users/christopher" title="View user profile." target="_blank">christopher</a> on April 12, 2011 </div>
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<p>Time Warner Cable's bill to <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.muninetworks.org/content/digging-h129-another-bill-nc-limit-local-authority-and-broadband-competition" target="_blank">kill competition by limiting the right of communities to build their own broadband networks</a> will have a committee hearing this week in North Carolina's Senate. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://stopthecap.com/2011/04/06/action-alert-bill-to-stop-community-broadband-being-rushed-through-nc-senate/" target="_blank">Stop the Cap! has details in its action alert</a>
-- we encourage people to continue contacting their Senators as well as
contacting local officials and telling them to contact Senators. </p>
<p>We have seen some interesting news coming out of North Carolina recently, including <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ci.salisbury.nc.us/press/2011/february/CityFibrant500thCustomerFINAL2_28_11%20%282%29.pdf" target="_blank">Salisbury connecting its 500th customer to its publicly owned Fibrant network [pdf]</a>. Additionally, some <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.salisburypost.com/News/041011-Fibrant-package-Mayors-want-Fibrant-as-a-choice-qcd" target="_blank">nine nearby communities have told Raleigh they want to preserve their right to be served by Fibrant</a>
(the bill would greatly limit the territory in which Fibrant can
expand, unlike private companies which have the freedom to expand across
the state). The story starts with a church in one of the communities,
Faith:</p>
<blockquote><p>Mahoney said his church, Faith Baptist, would like faster
Internet speeds but can’t afford the $20,000 Time Warner Cable would
charge to build a business-class circuit for the church.</p>
<p>Church members are not satisfied with <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.muninetworks.org/glossary/1#term9" target="_blank"><cite title="Digital Subscriber Line - or Internet access offered over the phone lines. DSL allows users to use the Internet at speeds greater than dial-up while also using the phone line for telephone conversations. DSL uses frequencies not used by human voices. Unfortunately, these frequencies degrade quickly over distance, meaning customers must live within a mile of the central office to get the fastest speeds.">DSL</cite></a> service from Windstream, Mahoney said. But it’s their only option since they can’t afford Time Warner’s price tag, he said.</p>
<p>If Salisbury extends Fibrant to Faith, the church would have another
choice for high-speed Internet, said Mahoney, who owns Rowan Onsite
Computer Solutions in downtown Salisbury and has Fibrant.</p></blockquote>
<p>This bill, inaptly named "Level Playing Field" creates new
restrictions for publicly owned networks like Fibrant, which under
current law can offer services to any community requesting them.</p>
<p><img alt="Stop the Cap" style="margin:7px" width="396" align="right" height="88"></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://stopthecap.com/2011/04/11/salisburys-fibrant-faces-unprecedented-demand-for-service-legislators-want-to-restrict/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Salisbury%27s+Fibrant+Faces+Unprecedented+Demand+for+Service+Legislators+Want+to+Restrict" target="_blank">Stop the Cap supplemented this article with more information from a local resident</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Isn’t it simply amazing that Fibrant is being bashed as a
failure-waiting-to-happen by the sponsors of this bill while mayors
across two counties are absolutely clamoring to get the service to their
residents,” said Stop the Cap! reader Andy Brown who lives near Landis.
“How can Marilyn Avila and Tom Apodaca have the slightest <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.muninetworks.org/glossary/1#term3" target="_blank"><cite title="The base unit of information in computing. For our purposes, also the base unit of measuring network speeds. 1 bit is a single piece of information. Network speeds tend to be measured by bits per second - using kilo (1,000), mega (1,000,000), and giga (1,000,000,000). A bit is a part of byte, they are not synonyms. Bit is generally abbreviated with a lower case b.">bit</cite></a>
of credibility on this issue when you see town leaders literally
falling all over each coveting a service that these
legislative-Friends-of-Time-Warner-Cable have predicted is a certain
failure?”</p>
<p>“I want Fibrant in Landis myself, if only for the competition,” Andy
shares. “You know, the kind of competition legislators are supposed to
support.”</p></blockquote>
<p>A new bill has been introduced in the Senate to <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.salisburypost.com/News/041011-Fibrant-package-Hartsell-bill-would-help-cities-qcd2011-04-11T05-51-23" target="_blank">more heavily regulate community networks but in a less heavy handed manner than H129</a>.
This bill would totally exempt the existing networks, as opposed to
H129 where the sponsors have consistently lied about how it impacts
existing networks.</p>
<blockquote><p>Salisbury, Wilson, Morganton, Mooresville and Davidson
argue it’s not fair for the state to change the rules after they
borrowed millions of dollars to legally build or buy broadband networks.</p>
<p>“The state approved our debt and Salisbury’s debt,” Shows said. “To
retroactively go back and change that is simply unfair. Municipal
broadband operations must be run like a business, and like a business,
either they’re growing or dying.”</p></blockquote>
<p><img alt="Chapel Hill Logo" style="margin:7px" width="120" align="left" height="120">Chapel Hill has joined the list of communities showing concern about how H129 will <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2011/03/bill_to_block_town_broadband" target="_blank">damage their long term plan to build the essential infrastructure for their digital future</a>. </p>
<blockquote><p>The town is trimming trees to make way for fiber optic
cable, primarily so it can be used for traffic signals. The town plans
for the cable to eventually connect town buildings and the wider
community with high speed Internet.</p>
<p>But with the possibility of the broadband bill passing, Kleinschmidt said the cable might not be used to its full potential.</p>
<p>“The worst case scenario is that the fiber optic cable will only be
used for our traffic signal and its full use will never be tapped,” he
said. “The best case scenario is also using it for municipal services
too, but even that could be at risk.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Chapel Hill has been opportunistically adding fiber assets as
opportunities arise and having a discussion about whether it wants to
create a town-wide publicly owned network. This bill will take that
decision out of their hands -- a bunch of politicians in Raleigh will
decide for them, after taking a ton of campaign donations from Time
Warner Cable and other incumbent telecom companies. </p>
<p>For those who are curious, Chapel Hill is currently doing what a number of other communities have done, adding <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.muninetworks.org/glossary/1#term10" target="_blank"><cite title="A system that uses glass (or plastic) to carry light which is used to transmit information. Typically, each side of the fiber is attached to a laser that send the light signals. When the connection reaches capacity, the lasers may be upgraded to send much more information along the same strand of fiber. This technology has been used for decades and will remain the dominant method of transmitting information for the foreseeable future.">fiber-optic</cite></a>
connections to run traffic signals. As long as the fiber is going in,
they might as well get more use out of it and are planning to leverage
it over time… if the Legislature doesn't tell them to but out of TWC's
exclusive club.</p>
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Link: </div>
<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.muninetworks.org/content/greensboro-passes-resolution-against-time-warner-cable-bill-north-carolina" target="_blank">Some Resolutions Passed by North Carolina Communities Against H129</a> </div>
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Link: </div>
<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.muninetworks.org/taxonomy/term/564" target="_blank">Our ongoing coverage of H 129</a> </div>
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</div><br>Source:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.muninetworks.org/content/salisburys-neighbors-state-legislature-dont-kill-our-fibrant-dreams" target="_blank"> http://www.muninetworks.org/content/salisburys-neighbors-state-legislature-dont-kill-our-fibrant-dreams</a><br>
<blockquote style="border-left:2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255);margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px"><div><br></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br>-- <br><div>Ben West</div><div><a href="mailto:me@benwest.name" target="_blank">me@benwest.name</a></div>
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