Communities take the search for broadband into their own hands

2017 has been a great year for winning legislative battles against bills threatening to curb or eliminate municipal broadband networks. For example: Missouri: anti-muni bill defeated;Tennessee: co-op won, muni lost in compromise bill that became law;Virginia: anti-muni bill also defeated;Maine: anti-muni bill DOA, sponsors killed it within day of introducing it. Constituents were able to work without the threat of punitive legislation in several states. West Virginia and Georgia are among those states whose legislators have opted to work with communities. These lawmakers believe public networks as one more option for advancing broadband. “Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d.” Nor Frontier, apparently, when scorned by a state legislator. West Virginia legislators this year passed a bill that makes it easier for cities to bring broadband to poorly served constituents. Frontier vigorously opposed the bill while legislators, including the leader of the state senate, supported it overwhelmingly.Soon after the vote, Frontier fired West Virginia Senate President, Republican Mitch Carmichael, who also was a sales manager for the state’s biggest ISP. According to the company, Senator Carmichael left because of “a reduction in workforce.” Local press in the state speculated this was payback for Carmichael’s support of the bill. West Virginia now allows as few as 20 individuals or organization to form co-ops devoted to deploying broadband. This makes operating networks cheaper and funding them easier because co-ops are nonprofit organizations. As such, co-ops enjoy tax breaks while those who donate to co-ops get a tax write-off. Co-ops exist for the benefit of the communities, which is reflected in lower subscription prices, plus profits that co-ops earn are returned to their members.