What happens when telecom companies write state legislation?

Beware of legislation promising “competition.” A bill passed by the General Assembly last year that was intended to jump-start competition in the cable TV industry has had the unforeseen consequence of costing the state and local governments across North Carolina millions of dollars in lost revenue. And six months after the law went into effect, that promised competition is nowhere in sight.

Federal Developments 2005-2006

Bristol Virginia Utilities fiber network is revitalizing SW Virginia

There was a time when Bristol, Va., and other mountain communities yearned for better roads — ribbons of asphalt that would link them with the world beyond. Today, an impressive network of highways crisscrosses this region in Southwest Virginia.

Now leaders of this city of 18,000 at the Tennessee state line have turned their attention to building a different kind of highway over which voice, data and video can travel at lightning speeds.They’re laying cables of hair-thin glass fibers — fiber optics. Their goal remains unchanged: to link with the outside world so that the region can stay in the game when it comes to economic development. Build it and they will come.

America Needs a Fiber-Based National Broadband Policy Now

By Jim Baller and Casey Lide, the Baller Herbst Law Group

In his latest album, Modern Times, Bob Dylan paints a troubling picture of what may  lie ahead for the United States. In a track called “Workingman’s Blues #2,” Dylan sings of  the diminishing buying power of American workers; of low wages becoming a reality in the face of brutal competition from abroad; of our inability to give away, let alone to sell, what we have to offer; of hunger creeping into our bellies; and of our fear of sinking into lives of continual crime.

“The place I love best is a sweet memory,” Dylan laments, “It’s a nude path, that we trod.” Dylan urges each of us to choose: “You can hang back or fight your best on the front lines, singin’ a little bit of these workingman blues.”

Are Dylan’s concerns overstated? Are they premature? We think not. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the details of President Bush’s broadband policies, most of us would surely agree with his observation in his most recent State of the Union address that America’s ability to remain competitive in the “dynamic world economy” is at risk. Noting the rapid emergence of competition from India, China, and other countries, he challenged America to take the dramatic steps necessary to ensure that we will continue to occupy the position of global leadership to which we have become accustomed.

In this paper, we discuss the critical importance of an aggressive national broadband policy that emphasizes the development of high-bandwidth communications systems, particularly FTTH systems. The stakes for America are huge. It is a fight from which we cannot hang back but must give our best on the front lines.

APPA report on battles over state barriers (2006)

Communities across the United States are working to bring broadband to their residents. Often, they are working with the private sector to provide services. But where private companies are unwilling or unable to meet local needs as fast as the community demands, some municipal governments are considering providing advanced communications networks and services themselves. Incumbent telecommunications companies and cable operators have often responded with fierce opposition and launch efforts to obtain state laws obstructing municipal broadband initiatives. Municipalities in Indiana faced such a fight this year — and secured a victory.

Freedom For Our Future responds to alleged municipal failures

The opposition has cited cities (out of over 620) where they say a municipal broadband utility has failed… They ALSO SAY that there aren’t any other communities out there who are providing Fiber To The Home (FTTH). That’s news to the 217 communities who belong to the FTTH Council.

Baller Herbst white paper on municipal fiber systems

The Tennessee Broadband Coalition has asked the Baller Herbst Law Group to respond to the main criticisms that opponents of public Fiber-to-the-User (FTTU) initiatives have raised in Tennessee and elsewhere. The Coalition would like to know whether any of these criticisms is valid, and, if so, what lessons the Coalition can learn from them to avoid or mitigate similar problems in Tennessee.

Financing Community Broadband

By Cathy Swirlbul

Municipal utilities are expanding into offering broadband service for a variety of reasons. Some communities have a history of providing utility services through public ownership. Other areas pursue community broadband when the incumbent cable and telecommunications companies fail to provide the service. What these projects have in common is the need for financing. The reality of financing in today’s market, though, may be different from commonly held perceptions.

Carol Wilson: “Munis Hit Back at Heartland”

A Heartland Institute study challenging the financial viability of municipal broadband networks is rife with “mistakes, misinterpretations, unsupported and insupportable claims, irrelevancies, innuendos, key omissions and obvious untruths,” according to Jim Baller of The Baller Herbst Law Group, the attorney for both of the municipal networks profiled in the study.

Lafayette responds to second Heartland Institute paper

In its latest “study” entitled Municipal Broadband: Optimistic Plan, Disappointing Reality (June 20, 2005), the Heartland Institute attempts to achieve two purposes simultaneously: (1) attack the municipal fiber project in Bristol, Virginia, and (2) use its criticism of the Bristol system to undermine the Lafayette fiber project. Heartland’s paper contains so many mistakes, misinterpretations, unsupported and insupportable claims, irrelevancies, innuendos, key omissions, and obvious untruths in Heartland’s latest harangue against municipal broadband that it would take a paper many times the length of this one to respond to them all.