
{"id":17140,"date":"2011-04-07T10:05:27","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T14:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=17140"},"modified":"2011-04-07T10:20:25","modified_gmt":"2011-04-07T14:20:25","slug":"town-wary-of-telecom-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/04\/07\/town-wary-of-telecom-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Town wary of telecom bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d As the town of Chapel Hill prepares for the installation of an extensive fiber-optic network, officials here are worried that the real potential of the new high-speed network may never be realized.<br \/>\nThe network, funded mostly through federal stimulus funds, will be used to speed up and improve the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s traffic-signal system. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt said it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important step for the town.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been at the top of our transportation wish-list for a decade,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. But the new system also could mean much more.<br \/>\nFor Kleinschmidt, the 30 miles of new fiber also presents a number of opportunities. One use would be an upgrade to the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intranet.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It could really help our ability to communicate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, with high-speed links between police substations and between the Town Operations Center, Town Hall and other key facilities. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want it to be the backbone of a new system.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nBut with the passage by the state House last week of a bill titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Level Playing Field\/Local Government Competition,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the worry is that Chapel Hill may soon be limited in what it can do with its new digital capacity.<br \/>\nThe bill, heavily supported by the telecommunications industry, sets up a number of hurdles aimed at making it difficult for a municipality to build a town broadband system. Supporters say it will prevent unfair competition with commercial providers, but its detractors say it will make it almost impossible for a town to offer the service.<br \/>\nSeveral states are considering similar bills, a trend that worries federal officials charged with ensuring the expansion of broadband services. On Monday, FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn called the legislation \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a significant barrier\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to expanding broadband access.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This piece of legislation certainly sounds goal-worthy, an innocuous proposition, but do not let the title fool you. This measure, if enacted, will not only fail to level the playing field; it will discourage municipal governments from addressing deployment in communities where the private sector has failed to meet broadband service needs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Clyburn said in a statement.<br \/>\nKleinschmidt, who has been monitoring the progress of the bill along with a group of mayors and other local elected officials, said the bill is aimed mainly at halting moves by the towns of Salisbury and Wilson who want to set up their own broadband systems. Those towns, he said, decided to step in and set up their own systems because of a dearth of  high-speed broadband in their areas.<br \/>\nSince Chapel Hill is a more affluent community, the availability of broadband is not as much of an issue, Kleinschmidt said. But the way the bill is worded may mean that the fiber the town is installing could be used only for the new traffic system.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want to be able to maximize the fiber we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re putting in,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re worried about whether we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to be able to use it. This could be a huge wasted opportunity.<br \/>\nKleinschmidt said he is also pushing against the bill because it represents another example of the state holding back local communities from stepping in if their citizens are being underserved.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another attempt to handcuff us from providing a full array of services,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the town of Chapel Hill prepares for the installation of an extensive fiber-optic network, officials here are worried that the real potential of the new high-speed network may never be realized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17141,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140\/revisions\/17141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}