The North Carolina League of Municipalities is making a push to allow local governments to build broadband infrastructure and lease it to private internet service providers, but critics warn the plan would harm taxpayers’ pocketbooks. The league tried and failed to get the same concept through the North Carolina General Assembly as part of the...
Bleeding money, unable to sign up enough subscribers, and incapable of investing in new technology to attract users, Salisbury’s beleaguered municipal broadband service is about to be leased to a private firm. The N.C. Local Government Commission approved a deal Tuesday, July 10, allowing Salisbury to refinance the Fibrant system’s $26.5 million in bonds. They...
Salisbury residents will vote Tuesday on whether to lease its city-owned broadband system to a private provider. Critics say it could be a case of making the best of a bad situation. Salisbury officials want to lease the assets of Fibrant to Hotwire Communications — everything from the fiber to offices to vehicles — for...
Rep. Susan Martin, R-Wilson, took a step Wednesday in clearing a path for Wilson to expand the area in which it offers broadband service. She has lobbied for a change in the law to allow rural areas to be more competitive with traditional providers. Martin filed one of 21 bills to close out the second...
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed the states of North Carolina and Tennessee a victory on Wednesday when it struck down a Federal Communications Commission rule that pre-empted the states’ regulation of municipal broadband service within their borders. The three-judge panel said that the FCC overstepped its authority. The ruling noted that municipalities...
A high-tech analyst suggests that a Federal Communications Commission rule pre-empting state laws limiting municipal broadband — including North Carolina’s — could be in trouble. Berin Szoka, president of Tech Freedom, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan technology think tank, said that while it’s difficult to predict the outcome of a lawsuit solely from the oral arguments...
GREENSBORO — During the 2009-10 legislative session, then-Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston, sponsored a bill that would prevent cities from building broadband systems without a public vote. That bill died in committee, but now Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, has given the issue new life with the current bill.
DAVIDSON — Residents of Davidson and Mooresville have been staggered in recent days by news that the $92.5 million cable TV and broadband system the towns own jointly will require an additional $6.4 million subsidy from taxpayers next year. The need for additional funding follows a recent $576,000 cash call on the towns from M-I Connection to keep the system operating for the remainder of the current fiscal year.
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