

Cable lobby rebuffed in attempt to ban public broadband networks - Jtsummers
http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/02/its-dead-kansas-municipal-internet-ban-was-stabbed-shot-and-hanged/

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jseliger
This is great news; in yesterday's broadband story I left this comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7271044](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7271044)
, which is about how the cable lobby has worked hard to prevent municipal
broadband.

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wnevets
"I think we did really kill the entire issue for at least a year."

hmmm.

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ambler0
Exactly the part I came on here to quote. It will be back; these things always
come back. Democracy requires eternal vigiliance.

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Florin_Andrei
> _Democracy requires eternal vigiliance_

You mean, wherever there's a huge pile of cash to be had, eternal vigilance is
required.

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stretchwithme
I'm a big believer in private enterprise. But I also believe in local control.

The more local, the better, and the less subject it is to lobbyist control.

Comcast may be a private company, but its knee-deep in the Washington game.
The public/private distinction is not as clear as one might think.

I think we'd all be better off forming small co-ops that own the last mile.
That would make it easier to make providers compete for business. Only one
last mile, with lots of options to connect.

Government likes to have a single water system, a single grid over a
geographic area. But that makes the entire system more susceptible to failure
and also fairly immune to competitive pressure.

If your local monopoly grid isn't robust, you can't switch. And huge areas can
go dark.

With competing grids, your co-op might go dark. But there just be a competing
grid up within walking distance. And these grids would be competing on
reliability, just like cell phone carriers do. You'd have more options than
going to a public utility commission meeting, speaking your piece and then
having them do whatever is politically expedient.

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madengr
Maybe now Overland Park, KS and Google can get fiber installed without acting
like preschoolers.

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JAFTEM
The title forgot the part where they flushed it down the toilet.

