By Alex Keown
The company that provides the world's largest Internet search engine has sided with Wilson and North Carolina's other municipalities in a political fight over a bill that would limit a municipality's ability to provide Internet and other communications services to its citizens.
John Burchett, state policy counsel for Google, sent a letter to House Speaker Joe Hackney urging him to oppose the bill. In the letter, Burchett said the bill, called the Local Government Fair Competition Act, threatens to undermine the prosperity of North Carolina.
The bill, which was passed by a House committee two weeks ago, would require governments to hold public hearings before establishing city-run, hi-tech communications infrastructure. Municipalities would also have to release their business plan, which would include how the city intends the venture to be profitable while not pricing the service below fair market value.
The bill has been backed by telecommunications industry members, including Time Warner Cable and AT&T. Proponents of the bill say that allowing local governments to use taxes to create their own information utilities gives towns and cities an unfair advantage over private companies.
The bill's opponents, which includes most of the state's municipalities and their legislative representatives, say the bill erects barriers that will prevent them from providing services that many private companies aren't offering certain areas of the state, particularly the rural areas.
The city of Wilson has already made an investment of $18 million for its fiber optics network which should go online sometime in early 2008. City leaders say offering access to high-speed Internet and other communications services is the infrastructure of the future.
Grant Goings, Wilson city manager, said the telecommunications companies are "concerned about their corporate profits; we are concerned about jobs, opportunities for our citizens and our city's future."
Burchett said Google supports a "strong, fair and open competition to ensure users can enjoy the widest range of choice and opportunities to access content online."
He said the United States is losing ground to other nations in broadband deployment. He said Google supports lowering the barriers to public broadband services rather than establishing new ones.
In addition to Google, other companies have also sent letters to legislators including Intel, Alcatel-Lucent and Tropos Networks out of California.
Brian Bowman, public affairs manager for the city of Wilson, said the fact that private companies such as Google are opposing the bill shows that the public and private sectors are not antagonistic toward each other.
"We believe they have a vision to create partnerships between corporations and cities instead of drawing battle lines," Bowman said. "These Internet companies indicate they see a profit can be made from such partnerships."
Policy groups like N.C. Public interest Research Group are also seeking to defeat the bill. Rob Thompson, spokesman for the group, said high-speed Internet access is critical for communication and developing a 21st Century economy.
The bill was passed by a House public utilities committee and currently sits in the House Finance Committee.
So far, no action has been taken on the bill, and Bowman says he's hoping it will die in committee.
