WBS: “Lafayette Louisiana City Vote Could Reshape Telecom, Media and Internet Business”

What’s Being Said (WBS) Dept.

This early reaction BayouBuzz piece is worth a gander in the “What’s being said department” if you’ve not seen it already.

Sabludowsky gets it right:

Lafayette, Louisiana–In one of the most critical votes by a city against the traditional way for its citizens to obtain telecom services and media services that could have ripple effects throughout the U.S., City of Lafayette, Lafayette Louisiana voters gave the Lafayette project thumbs up to a proposal that will allow the municipality of compete with traditional telecommunications and media conduits.

Lafayette Utilities Director Terry Huval echoed the mayor but focused upon opponents to the project. “Today, we did what our predecessors did 109 years ago — we took our future into our own hands, said Huval. “Also BellSouth and Cox wanted the people of Lafayette to speak, and now the people of Lafayette have spoken loud and clear. Now it´s time for BellSouth and Cox to accept what the people have said and stop throwing hurdles in our way.”

Cities, municipalities, telecom companies and even media companies have been waiting for this vote since the outcome could significantly change the balance of power in those areas and the business models in this 21st century.

YES. We can show the way… if others have the sense to follow.

7 thoughts on “WBS: “Lafayette Louisiana City Vote Could Reshape Telecom, Media and Internet Business””

  1. hey,
    I read about your project on Muniwirelles so am very interested to hear your experience . How did you get fiber?
    I’m interested how we in Croatia could do the same in rural aerias.

  2. Hi Anon.

    We got wireless by fighting for it. What is crucial is that it be a community effort-in my humble opinion. Only the community working together can afford to provision modern technologies at an affordable price.

    That said for rural areas you might want to consider wireless…I think fiber is destined for everywhere except the most remote standalone houses eventually. But in the near term the cost of provisioning rural areas can be too high to be feasible immediately. I’d advise looking hard at the leads for wireless in muniwireless.

    (In this I mean really rural areas as opposed to the wealthy suburban areas which are sometimes called rural for marketing reasons in the US)