Sunday, March 27, 2005
Texas bids to enter Telecom Hall of Shame
Jim Baller has just posted the latest members and nominees for the Telecom Hall of Shame. After a bunch of Texas activists, including Austin Wireless friends like Jon Lebkowsky, Rich MacKinnon and Adina Levin, got the Texas House Committee on Regulated Industries to nix restrictions on muni networks, even worse restrictions were added on the floor of the House. As the bill stands today, no municipality may introduce wireless services, free or paid, after September 1, 2006, unless that municipality has jumped through seventeen flaming hoops held by indicted telecom executives. If it passes, there's a chance that Texas will change its state motto to, "The Kilobyte State.'
UPDATE: Today SaveMuniWireless.org reports
Meanwhile, one Texas legislator seems to get it. The Austin American Statesman reports that Senator Troy Fraser said
UPDATE: Today SaveMuniWireless.org reports
[Representative] Crownover['s] "anti-dark-fiber" amendment [to the Texas Telecom Suppression Bill] prevents cities from selling access to this unused fiber at wholesale prices to internet service providers, creating a competitive, free market for cheap, high speed internet access . . . The Crownover amendment has one purpose -- to prevent the development of a competitive market in high-speed internet service, and to permanently extend the incumbent monopolies on phone and cable service into the internet age.Doesn't the Texas legislature realize that the beneficiaries of better telecom include every other sector of its economy?Can't it figure out that if the information industry can get better, faster, cheaper connectivity in other states, it'll pull up stakes and move?
Meanwhile, one Texas legislator seems to get it. The Austin American Statesman reports that Senator Troy Fraser said
"It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that the incumbent telephone companies are not interested in competition and are only interested in raising revenue by increasing rates on the consumer and maintaining subsidies at their current levels."And Esme Vos writes
This bill does nothing except protect the stranglehold that large incumbent telcos have on the market for broadband services.Why do "we the people" let yesterday's telcos write tomorrow's laws?
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