Wheeler Ready to Battle State Muni Restrictions, Says Sohn
The battlefield for fighting state restrictions on municipal broadband has moved to state legislatures, an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Tuesday. In a speech at a Coalition for Local Internet Choice conference in Minneapolis, Wheeler counselor Gigi Sohn…
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restated Wheeler’s promise to testify before state legislatures considering repeals of the muni broadband limits. Wheeler made the promise after the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the FCC order pre-empting Tennessee and North Carolina restrictions on expanding municipal broadband networks (see 1608100049). “The battlefield is no longer the FCC and the courts, but state legislatures,” Sohn said, according to prepared remarks. “And the battle plan is no longer to file convincing petitions and briefs. It is for advocates for local Internet choice to bring every local mayor, city council, business, school, college, library, chamber of commerce and citizen together to convince state officials that for the future of those cities and towns and by extension, the state itself, localities must have the ability to determine their own broadband futures. ... And if you’d like, Chairman Wheeler will be happy to help.” Sohn cited pole attachment regimes and specifically the make-ready process as holding up broadband deployments. “This ‘make-ready’ process is ripe for gaming by those who disfavor competition,” she said.