Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Mark Turner <jmarkturner AT gmail.com>]

Hi INWers,

There's been plenty afoot in the N.C. General Assembly this session 
regarding broadband internet, as those couple of you who read my blog 
are well aware.

Now there's an effort by the telecom industry to define "broadband 
service." House Bill 283 would define any Internet service with speeds 
faster than 1.5 Mbps down and 384 kbps up.

So let me ask you ... how many of *you* would consider that "broadband?" 
 How many of you would die a slow death using the Internet at those 
speeds? A measly 1.5 Mbps/384kbs might have been considered "broadband" 
15 years ago but it certainly doesn't pass for that today, now that 
countries like Japan have jaw-dropping 160 Mbps cable modem service. 
Arguably these slow speeds weren't considered "broadband" 15 years ago, 
either!

What's the implication? The telecoms wants the law to treat a sucky 
WiMax (or worse) connection as competition to a cable modem, DSL 
service, or a fiber connection (like Verizon offers in New England but 
not here). That way telecoms can claim what they're offering is good 
enough when we know it really isn't.

Fortunately, our municipal broadband advocates are pushing a substitute 
bill that defines "broadband service" as 5 Mbps *symmetrical*. This 
definition would conveniently make the municipal Internet systems of 
Wilson and Salisbury the only two in the state that qualify thus far as 
"broadband services."


This bill is in the House Ways and Means/Broadband Connectivity 
committee and with your support it will advance on Wednesday. Regardless 
of your thoughts on municipal Internet, I think you'll agree that the 
world has long ago outpaced speeds of 1.5 Mbps/384kbps. If you think 
it's time to raise the broadband bar to 5 Mbps symmetrical, let these 
folks know you enthusiastically support House Bill 283:

Bill Faison <Bill.Faison AT ncleg.net> 715-3019
Angela Bryant <Angela.Bryant AT ncleg.net> 733-5878

You can also write their legislative assistants:
faisonla AT ncleg.net
bryantle AT ncleg.net

Link to House Bill 283 (slow version written by the industry):
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2009&BillID=H283

I'll put a link to the revised 5 Mbps version on my blog shortly.

Cheers!

Mark Turner
www.markturner.net