[PLUG-TALK] Kansas

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Denis" == Denis Heidtmann <denis.heidtmann at gmail.com> writes:

Denis> http://www.muninetworks.org/content/kansas-legislature-introduces-bill-
Denis> limit-internet-investment Reportedly and ALEC bill.  If so,
Denis> expect it to appear in other states.  -Denis

This sort of thing is not new at all.  It is, of course, despicable
and loathsome.  There was a similar bill just a few years ago in North
Carolina that passed.  I would guess that in Kansas there is going to
be more pushback given the recent history and because of apparent
business opposition, but I have no sense of the politics in Kansas, so
that's just a wild guess.

I have a vague sense that Oregon legislators are more clued than to
allow this sort of thing to happen here.  Clearly, outlawing any
practical competition is the incumbents' dream, as it is for any
monopolist.  You should assume there is a lobbyist (or a dozen) in
every state trying to get this same bill passed, every session.

The encouraging and potentially hopeful thing is how widely hated
monopolists are.  Comcast is a ghoulish company draining the
life-force from their customers, providing a technically decent
service on terms which they set unilaterally.  They compete, in vast
swaths of their operating territory, in practical terms, only with
having no service at all.

This situation is a big part of why the Personal Telco Project exists
and continues to exist.  And it's why you slackers should be helping ;-)

</soapbox>


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net