North Carolina Rejects Moratorium on Municipal Broadband

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2010- On July 11 the North Carolina House of Representatives put an end to a bill that would ban communities from installing their own broadband infrastructure.

In the last year, several towns and cities built their own Fiber to the Home networks. The networks in North Carolina generally provide faster connections at lower rates than the existing carriers’ services.

As a result, existing carriers in North Carolina, including AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and CenturyLink, chose to litigate with the help of state senator David Hoyle. This is the fourth attempt by these carriers to block community-based fiber networks.

The North Carolina House of Representatives amended the bill to no longer include the moratorium. The only part of the bill that passed was a request for the House’s Revenue Laws Study Committee to examine the legality and circumstances of locally-provided broadband.