What’s Being Said: “ISPs Attempt to Stop Public Broadband”

PCWorld carries a brief report on the conflict between municipal and private providers of broadband. I don’t think I’ve seen a report of this kind in the personal computing space before. It’s usually a broadband mag specialty or is carried in the business or political press. What we should note is that for a general, introductory report Lafayette is consider the obvious place to call to get the municipal side of the story. The country is watching and what happens here matters. The gist of the Lafayette part of the story:

Lafayette, Louisiana, mayor Joey Durel says that his city “begged” its phone and cable companies for years to wire it with fiber-optic access–to no avail. The city now plans to build its own fiber network, but Bell South and Cox Communications have filed court motions to stop the plan.

“The practices of corporate America are hurting communities like Lafayette,” he says.

Durel says a Lafayette-owned fiber network delivering Internet, cable TV, and phone service would save residents over 20 percent on their monthly bills, and would let the city give its schools fast Net access.

It’s great having a Mayor who speaks his mind; I’ve had enough mush-mouth in my day to last a lifetime.