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What stops Pinetops from forming a municipal broadband corp that simply subcontracts everything to Greenlight?

by dpark 10y ago

jauer 10y ago
This is pretty much what my town does for their public electric utility. I moved from larger town A (has an electric utility, a lot of trucks, linemen, and a yard full of transformers and cable spools) to smaller town B and noticed that while the billing address changed pretty much everything else stayed the same. Town B might have one linemen, but I see town A's people and trucks every time there is a major project and town B's substations are fed from a substation run by town A.
thyrsus 10y ago
Wilson established its internet service before the law went into effect, and probably paniced the monopolies into getting the law passed, since their service was so utterly superior and cheaper in cost to anything the monopolies offered. Wilson only barely managed to get grandfathered in; the law also prohibits any new government provided internet service. Example: Chapel Hill, NC was busy designing public WIFI service, but has abandoned that to the incumbent Time Warner Cable monopoly WIFI. Oh, you don't have a TWC account? Sucks to be you. My opinion: the legislature is totally corrupt. The only silver lining is that Google is (a) a "private" concern and (b) is coming to me in a few years. AT&T is also competing right now, but their "fiber" turns into ADSL a few hundred yards from the customer. The non-Research Triangle Park areas of the state are screwed until Google can provide competition. It would be far better for counties/cities to start that competition now.
- jfoutz 10y ago
  I did a tiny bit of research this evening, because this sounded so crazy. My opinion: People on the edge of wilson county should petition to redraw the county line. Eroding the tax base might scare the legislature into being a tiny bit more sane.

What stops Pinetops from forming a municipal broadband corp that simply subcontracts everything to Greenlight?

by dpark 10y ago

What stops Pinetops from forming a municipal broadband corp that simply subcontracts everything to Greenlight?

jauer 10y ago

This is pretty much what my town does for their public electric utility. I moved from larger town A (has an electric utility, a lot of trucks, linemen, and a yard full of transformers and cable spools) to smaller town B and noticed that while the billing address changed pretty much everything else stayed the same. Town B might have one linemen, but I see town A's people and trucks every time there is a major project and town B's substations are fed from a substation run by town A.

thyrsus 10y ago

Wilson established its internet service before the law went into effect, and probably paniced the monopolies into getting the law passed, since their service was so utterly superior and cheaper in cost to anything the monopolies offered. Wilson only barely managed to get grandfathered in; the law also prohibits any new government provided internet service. Example: Chapel Hill, NC was busy designing public WIFI service, but has abandoned that to the incumbent Time Warner Cable monopoly WIFI. Oh, you don't have a TWC account? Sucks to be you. My opinion: the legislature is totally corrupt. The only silver lining is that Google is (a) a "private" concern and (b) is coming to me in a few years. AT&T is also competing right now, but their "fiber" turns into ADSL a few hundred yards from the customer. The non-Research Triangle Park areas of the state are screwed until Google can provide competition. It would be far better for counties/cities to start that competition now.

jfoutz 10y ago
I did a tiny bit of research this evening, because this sounded so crazy. My opinion: People on the edge of wilson county should petition to redraw the county line. Eroding the tax base might scare the legislature into being a tiny bit more sane.