Yes, I’m still on vacation, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to point out this column from the July 18 Newsweek. Texas Republican Pete Sessions is pushing a bill in Congress that would outlaw municipal broadband initiatives like Burlington Telecom, the one that’s up and running — and about to expand — in Burlington. Sessions, incidentally, used to work for the telecom industry, which opposes municipal investment in broadband.
I blogged about the bill when I first heard about it earlier this month, and I’m excited to see a mainstream news source writing about this issue. Because of the technical nature of this debate, it’s far too easy to tune it out. But banning municipal broadband would have a serious impact on Burlington and other communities who want to follow its example. We are literally deciding who will build and own the digital infrastructure that we’ll be using for the next 100 years. These questions are far too imporant to be settled by a handful of lawmakers and lobbyists.
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