Posted on 01/15/2015 7:27:22 AM PST by SeekAndFind
President Obama has called on cities and towns to create their own broadband service for their residents to compete with large corporations.
Obama was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa touting the plan to get states to relax their rules against municipalities setting up their own networks. Cedar Rapids got an exemption from the FCC to create their own networks a few years ago.
Republicans in Congress reacted immediately.
"In Tennessee we have a term to describe people like President Obama — tone-deaf,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said in a statement.
“At a time when Americans think the biggest problem facing our nation today is big government, you would think he'd have gotten the message by now,” she added. “We don't need unelected bureaucrats like FCC [Federal Communications Commission] Chairman Tom Wheeler dictating to our states what they can and can't do with respect to protecting their limited taxpayer dollars and private enterprises.”
In 19 states, there are laws on the books limiting local governments from building out their own municipal Internet services.
The FCC has been asked by two cities — in North Carolina and in Tennessee — to override those laws. Obama on Wednesday urged the FCC to do just that.
“I’m on the side of competition,” Obama said during his speech at a Cedar Falls utility plant.
Supporters of the move say that it would help create more competition for broadband service, and many Democrats cheered Obama’s call. According to the FCC, more than half the country has just one option for high-speed broadband Internet service with download speeds of 25 Mbps or higher.
Critics, however, say that it would amount to Washington intervention in local laws.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It’s easier to control a few huge corporations
than a multitude of small businesses.
Uh-oh!
It would sort of give someone the impression that his playbook is stuck on one page with no helpful contingencies.
This is the very reason why his way of thinking is doomed to failure.
Not likely any candidates going to Iowa are going to attack internet connection subsidies. Governor Branstad is pushing the plan too.
I don’t mind cities creating their own private networks to conduct city business. However, I am extremely opposed to the idea of government competing in any marketplace against private business.
"All Germany Listens to the Fuhrer on the People's Radio."
How ?
For the chi'run .... through the gummint school system
Schools are always asking for money, usually more money than is needed to accommodate any student population variable,
because it goes to the teachers fund ... and they get it or not based on how important the reason is perceived.
Many people are hip to the ways and whys of the dept of education, so the way to control the internet is to provide it to the students through the school
It IS after all, an electronic world "they're preparing our kids for" (I know ... ended in a preposition)
Now ... Johnny comes home with a new laptop (your tax dollars) AND "secure" internet connection and you beam with pride because Johnny is SO advanced to warrant a free computer from his school
A week later, they have found that there is really no major additional expense to expand that coverage to YOUR PC as well and ... heck ... it's all bundled anyway ... why not ?
Bingo !
Hi ..... my name is Big Brother .... nice undies you're wearin', darlin'
NPR comes to the internet.
But I had thought that there was ALREADY a .gov and a .edu portion of the internet that set aside for just this sort of propaganda distribution.
Does this mean that commercial advertisements will be driven from display on the internet?
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
- Ronald Reagan
Because it works so well in places likely China...
This sounds like a good idea until they price cable, telephone pole rental, and maintenance.
Then the cable companies and telephone companies look pretty good.
It would be much cheaper to do city wide wi fi.
We are engaging in it right now.
So they can “listen” in? Cut off communication between certain groups/parties? No thanks.
Anything that’s free is going to be substandered or rationed like everything else the government gives away.Maybe they,The government will issue 2400 baud modems.
That’s about the capability you’ll probably get.
Sure, let the government take care of the internet. They’ve done such a fine job on everything they have handled. Next thing they will do is make sure all of us are good little soviets.
The government can in no way play any valid role in “competition”.
oh hell no! No Government run anything! We’re done! Go away Obama!
Sort of how the Post Office competes with FedEx.
Another government give-away. After free cellphones, and free cellphone service, they’ll select favored clients to have free PCs and internet. It’s a right, you know, so long as I pay for it with all of those friggin’ charges on my bill.
A suburb of Minneapolis tried to install solar-powered wifi citywide a few years back. I think they got two-thirds installed and were so far behind schedule and ahead of budget they smartly cancelled.
from Strib...”St. Louis Park is abandoning $1 million worth of radios, poles and solar panels erected to create the nation’s first citywide wireless Internet service powered by the sun.
It’s another step in the city’s falling out with the project’s Maryland contractor Arinc — a breakup that council and staff members said has “sickened” them.
“We’re going to tell Arinc, ‘Come get your poles, take them out of the ground, stick them someplace where the solar panels won’t work at all,’” Mayor Jeff Jacobs said.
At a meeting Tuesday night, the City Council directed staff to negotiate with Arinc for the removal of the infrastructure it has installed.
Clint Pires, the city’s chief information officer, said much of what Arinc built is in “the wrong locations” with “the wrong materials,” and salvaging the solar project could cost another $3 million, on top of more than $800,000 the city already has spent.”
Governments are always so efficient!
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