Tag Archive for: municipal

Google, Yahoo fighting on both sides of municipal broadband debate

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Last week the Internet Association submitted an official statement (PDF) urging the Federal Communications Commission to intervene in proposed state-level laws that seek to prohibit municipalities from deploying and maintaining their own broadband networks.

The Internet Association is essentially a lobbying organization that says it is “dedicated to advancing public policy solutions to strengthen and protect internet freedom, foster innovation and economic growth and empower users.” It supports net neutrality, patent reforms that could eradicate patent trolls, and the protection of privacy of internet users, among many other causes in the technology industry. The group boasts a long list of very high-profile technology companies, including Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Reddit, and PayPal.  

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Network World Colin Neagle

Comcast’s silly propaganda helped kill municipal broadband projects

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A little more than 10 years ago, Comcast stuffed mailboxes in Batavia, Illinois, in the weeks leading up to a vote on a referendum measure attempting to establish a municipal broadband network, warning of failed projects and other horror stories that would come to life if they voted in favor of it.

The fliers, one of which can be seen above and others which are published at Motherboard, likened municipal broadband to “ghosts” and “goblins,” claimed that the referendum proponents didn’t even have a business plan for the project, and, strangely, implied that the local women who voted in favor of it didn’t understand their priorities.

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Network World Colin Neagle

Milwaukee County Board rejects tentative union contract – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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The board voted 11-6 to defeat the tentative contract with District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents more than 3,000 of the county’s 5,600 employees. Some union backers on the board …

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