[x-pubpol] In North Carolina, a reversal on municipal broadband

[Joly MacFie]

http://stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=595887

The legislation does not expressly prohibit municipal broadband. Now,
however, any city that wants to build its own network will have to abide by
a complex series of rules. Those include remitting to the state the same
amount that a private provider would have to pay in corporate income, sales
and use and franchise taxes (about $19 per customer) and using only revenues
generated by the service to finance it, rather than other city funds.
Muncipalities will be required to charge customers the full amount that it
costs them to operate the network and must limit coverage to the
jurisdictional boundaries of the city.

Wilson’s Bowman believes that the law amounts to a de-facto ban on municipal
broadband in the state. “You could build the network but you could never
operate it,” he says. “I don’t know of a business in America that can make
money the first day.

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Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
 http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
 VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
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