Incumbent phone and cable companies have spent years successfully lobbying state lawmakers to pass laws banning towns and cities from wiring themselves — even in cases where incumbents wouldn’t. The laws, usually written by incumbent lawyers, were passed in more than a dozen states without much public debate — though momentum slowed in recent years due to media attention and consumer advocacy opposition. With broadband stimulus money now in play, the laws are being pushed again — most recently in Pennsylvania, and now, say locals, in North Carolina by Democratic State Senator David Hoyle:

Of course “leveling the playing field” in this context is code for changing the laws to protect the revenues of regional incumbents AT&T and Time Warner Cable. The specific target in North Carolina appears to be a growing number of muni-projects in the state, including a million fiber to the home project being built in Salisbury, North Carolina. The city of Wilson, North Carolina launched a million municipal broadband operation named Greenlight last year, offering symmetrical speeds up to 100Mbps — far surpassing the best AT&T and Time Warner Cable have to offer.
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