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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

ALEC Legislators - Make Poor Decisions on Muni Broadband


Do you folks know that you could get better internet service – higher speed internet service at a lower cost if your city were to invest in and build a broadband system?

Yep – that’s the truth!

But ALEC members in your state legislature are passing legislation that makes it impossible for cities to develop their own broadband systems for their citizens.

ALEC legislative members push ALEC "model legislation" that bans municipal broadband to benefit ALEC corporate sector members.

Why does ALEC do this?
Because ALEC Corporate Profit sector members rule over the legislatures and what ALEC Corporate Profit sector members wants/need – means more to ALEC legislators than you do.


Below are some snips from a Democracy Now show
12 minutes – worth your time
You don't have to sit down and watch it - just queue it up and listen to it!!!
It is worth it to know – how your “public servant” ALEC legislator– is really a sap working for the telecoms.
 
CATHARINE RICE: But community broadband is the concept that the community gets involved in building the infrastructure to bring broadband to their residents and their businesses.

AMY GOODMAN: Why aren’t companies doing this?

CATHARINE RICE: Well, they’ve admitted in public that in a lot of these areas they feel that there are not enough homes per mile or that the people don’t make enough money, and so it’s really not worth their investment to bring broadband to those communities.

And that’s it folks –
To the telecoms
You aren’t
Rich enough
To deserve excellent products or service - at a reasonable price - from the telecoms.

BUT – If your CITY wants to provide you with excellent broadband products and services  ... 
Hell no!!!
     the telecoms say that is unfair advantage.

According to the telecoms and their "bought and paid for" ALEC legislators it’s an unfair advantage for the city to provide services to the public
Interesting argument - since  the telecoms don’t even want to provide decent service for the public either.

But that is the telecoms argument - we get to provide expensive lousy - slow service
Because we have ALEC legislators who introduce/pass ALEC "model legislation" restricting cities from building their own municipal broadband systems.
When the telecoms have ALEC legislators setting the legal boundaries of broadband development - the telecoms will always win and you will always lose.
Slow speeds, lousy service and high price, provided to you by for-profit telecoms - that is what your ALEC legislator promises to give you!!!

So you end up paying more for lousy service from the telecoms.
Because ALEC legislators won't let your city build the broadband infrastructure that is fast and effective at a lower cost.

To ALEC legislators - it is all about sponsoring/introducing ALEC "model legislation" that focuses on providing profits for ALEC corporate members.

For ALEC legislators - it is NOT about providing "public service" - it is about providing more profits for their generous ALEC corporate profit sector member buddies.

BUT – the telecoms stop it anyway
Through ALEC legislators!!



CHRIS MITCHELL: So, we haven’t seen a lot of effort at the national level to ban these networks, but in individual states we see AT&T, Time Warner Cable, other major companies flooding state legislators with talking points that say it’s unfair, these communities are using tax dollars, every one of these networks fails, and a number of other things. But groups like ours don’t have the ability to respond to every state legislator and to get to set the record straight. So the state legislators often make poor decisions.

CATHARINE RICE:      The bill’s sponsor, on her own website, listed herself as the finance manager for the John Locke Foundation, which is 80 percent funded by a fellow named Art Pope, who’s very good friends with the Koch brothers and pretty much funded the takeover of our state by the new Republican Party. And she sponsored the bill, which was actually written by Time Warner Cable and ALEC, which—

AMY GOODMAN: ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Time Warner – ALEC corporate member
Comcast – ALEC corporate member
AT&T – ALEC corporate member
All of them providing scholarships to ALEC state legislators to attend ALEC meetings at luxurious and posh locations,  so the telecoms can sit with them in private, secretive meetings of the American Legislative Exchange Council; where AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner write ALEC "model legislation" that YOUR state ALEC legislator introduces for the telecoms.

Disgusting?

Yes ALEC is disgusting.



UPDATE

Twelve Hours after I published this entry
CMD published an article on the ALEC push to ban municipal broadband.   The article contains some really important history and data about ALEC and the telecoms regarding this issue.
Read it  >>>>HERE<<<<<
by Brendan Fischer — March 7, 2013 - 8:17am

Members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the Georgia Legislature are pushing a bill to thwart locally-owned internet in underserved communities, an industry-sponsored effort that effectively reinforces the digital divide. A vote in the Georgia Assembly is scheduled for Thursday, March 7; if Georgia passes the bill it would be the twentieth state to eliminate community control over internet access.



UPDATE 2:
DAWSONVILLE, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -

The Georgia House of Representatives voted down a bill that would have prevented some cities from offering public broadband service. House Bill 282, dubbed the Municipal Broadband Investment Act, failed 70-94 Thursday night.

Its sponsor, Rep. Mark Hamilton, R-Cumming, said he hoped to spur private enterprise by preventing local cities and authorities from interfering.

Mark Hamilton – ALEC member
Mark Hamilton – ALEC Task Force Member

Mark Hamilton “hoped to spur private enterprise”   
     SHILL FOR ALEC Corporate Profit Sector members.
Mark Hamilton “hoped to spur private enterprise”    
     SHILL FOR ALEC Corporate Sector members  - - - 
    - advancing the agenda and priorities of ALEC Corporate Sector members 
    – instead of the needs of Georgia constituents.
 
 

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