Kansas
isn't the only state considering legislation that would limit the
growth of government-funded broadband networks that threaten incumbent
Internet service providers.
The latest such attempt we've learned of is a Utah House bill called the "Interlocal Entity Service Prohibition,"
which would prevent a regional fiber consortium from building
infrastructure outside the boundaries of its member cities and towns.
While it would affect any such group, the bill seems to be directed
at UTOPIA, the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, a
consortium of 16 cities that operates a fiber-to-the-premises broadband
network. The bill explicitly targets fiber only, not affecting cable or
other types of networks.
"It
actually is aimed specifically at UTOPIA," the group's legislative
policy director, Gary Crane, told Ars. Crane is also a city attorney for
Layton, one of UTOPIA's member municipalities. "I think there's
probably a lot of fear in those who hold the monopoly currently in our
cities that this model may be a good model for other cities to adopt."
The bill, sponsored by Republican legislator Curt Webb, "prohibits an
interlocal entity that provides telecommunication service through a
fiber optic network from constructing infrastructure or providing
telecommunication service in locations outside the boundaries of its
members."
We've tried to reach Webb by e-mail and phone but haven't heard back yet.
UTOPIA's network is open access, allowing private Internet service providers to sell broadband over the fiber.
Of course, this is not surprising, the very notion of utopia is anathema to the alliance of Big Business and Big Government.
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