Wednesday, January 12, 2005
From FierceWiFi.com
Carriers intensify battle against municipalities offering broadband
The war between the carriers and municipalities trying to do good by their tax payers continues, with the latest arena being Indiana, which has now followed in the footsteps of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in passing legislation strictly limiting the ability of municipalities to offer free broadband service to the people. Indiana House Bill No. 1148 passed at the behest of the large carriers and contains no provisions allowing municipalities to provide services in the case of customers being overcharged by existing carriers. The new law also makes it illegal for a municipality to roll out better services than those offered by the carriers, even if they are cheaper.
The law, in effect, forces every customer in Indiana to pay whatever their service provider wants to charge, regardless of the quality of service these companies provision -- and then makes it illegal to compete. All telecom companies have to do to prevent a municipality from offering broadband service is to tell the state authorities that, within nine months, they would be offering a similar service. This law thus allows telecom companies to say whatever they want about when they plan to roll out services (without any repercussions if they fail to deliver on their promise). Moreover, even if the carriers do provide service -- a service provider can have only one customer in any city in the state, for as long as they wish -- and thus prevent that municipality from deploying anything to expand connectivity to the rest of the city.
The war between the carriers and municipalities trying to do good by their tax payers continues, with the latest arena being Indiana, which has now followed in the footsteps of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in passing legislation strictly limiting the ability of municipalities to offer free broadband service to the people. Indiana House Bill No. 1148 passed at the behest of the large carriers and contains no provisions allowing municipalities to provide services in the case of customers being overcharged by existing carriers. The new law also makes it illegal for a municipality to roll out better services than those offered by the carriers, even if they are cheaper.
The law, in effect, forces every customer in Indiana to pay whatever their service provider wants to charge, regardless of the quality of service these companies provision -- and then makes it illegal to compete. All telecom companies have to do to prevent a municipality from offering broadband service is to tell the state authorities that, within nine months, they would be offering a similar service. This law thus allows telecom companies to say whatever they want about when they plan to roll out services (without any repercussions if they fail to deliver on their promise). Moreover, even if the carriers do provide service -- a service provider can have only one customer in any city in the state, for as long as they wish -- and thus prevent that municipality from deploying anything to expand connectivity to the rest of the city.
