The House Public Utilities Committee has approved legislation that would make it harder for cities and towns to build their own broadband data systems. The bill is the latest in a series of efforts by telecom corporations to keep local governments out of the broadband business. Cable and phone companies argue municipalities aren’t subject to several taxes they pay, and have other financial advantages when building the high-speed Internet systems. Towns and cities say Big Telcom isn’t extending super-fast Internet at reasonable prices. The telecom companies are opposed by the politically influential North Carolina League of Municipalities and corporate giants Google and Intel. They argue that crimping municipal broadband could stifle economic growth in a wired age.(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 3/02/11).
