Time Warner Cable trying to make municipal fiber illegal in North Carolina
I am originally from rural North Carolina and happen to be visiting my parents at the moment.  I'll give a quick run-down of their internet options over the years:<p>From 1995-2000, their only option was dialup. 56k dialup was offered but the quality of the phone lines in the area only allowed for 26k - 28k at best.<p>Sometime around 2000 or 2001, "broadband" finally moved to the area.  However, they can not get DSL or Cable. They have a wireless ISP (radio installed on the house, receives signal from a tower.)<p>They get about 1mpbs down and about 10% packet loss. Last night I was battling 35% packet loss while trying to do some work.<p>Parts of the county do have DSL and Cable.  A guy who lives about 10 houses up from my dad has Time Warner broadband. He's had it for 10 years and loves it. My parent's can't get it, however, because they're just over the county line and apparently this county has some sort of exclusivity agreement with another small/local cable company.<p>That small cable company does have broadband, but only to small/select area of the county, and they don't seem to have any interest in heading out this way.<p>I really don't even know what to do to help them anymore as far as connectivity goes. I just know that it annoys them.<p>Anyway, the point of my little tirade is: It angers me to see possible additional imposed limitations to an area which already struggles to have anything to begin with.