The unreasonable fight for municipal broadband
Hopefully this piece gets a lot more views, because this is an issue that pretty much any rational technoligist should get involved with. Here in NC, our state legislature also caved to cableco and telecom pressure to make it nearly impossible for muni broadband to spread. That was after a single city's service succeeded so spectacularly that the incumbents had visions of Armageddon.That's because they knew that even in this relatively center-right leaning state, people will know a good deal when they see it: so job 1 was to make sure they never do. So far their efforts at blocking competition have been successful. Except for a few very limited areas where Google Fiber was able to pry its way in, there has been no competition to the incumbents from muni or private parties.At this point our best hope may be that changing demographics and the undeniable drift away from traditional programming will result in their financial collapse, finally allowing communities to serve themselves.The other option is for people to get out and pressure their political reps to make muni or community broadband easier to deploy, maybe even run for office themselves and replace those who have sold out. Broadband access isn't as important as homelessness or healthcare, but it is important. Maybe it's a good place to start reversing the crappification of everything many here have lived through their whole lives.