WhatNowPremium
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC | reply to nasadude
Re: This Is News? If a municipality goes into the cable business it should cove the entire county. It really should be a separate unit that has to pay taxes at the same rate as the private telco and cable. They should not get any special treatment like free or reduced offices in town hall and other city departments. In other words if they can stand on their own like a private company then more power to them. I just don't think it is fair to take many customers from a private company but force a telco or cable company to continue to pay property taxes at the rate they did before. Who is going to make up those taxes if the telco and cable abandon the area because they can no longer compete.
Muni utilities tend to over charge or under charge and then do not have enough to make upgrades to the plant. Or they over charge and still don't keep the plant up to date.
IF the town wants to fund the project the bond holders should not get tax payer backup. If the project fails then the bond holders take the hit just like a private company.
If the Town wants to build the fiber system as a dump pipe but the customer has to arrange all content then I can be more supportive. I still feel like the system should be county wide so someone outside the populated areas or town limit never gets service like the telcos and cable companies have done.
The only place that has done that is the Power Company in the Chattanooga, TN. If I am reading right they brought FTTH to all customers in their territory. Even Google Fiber is not covering all of KC in either state. |
