Incumbent phone and cable companies have spent years successfully lobbying state lawmakers to pass laws banning towns and cities from wiring themselves -- even in cases where incumbents wouldn't. The laws, usually written by incumbent lawyers, were passed in more than a dozen states without much public debate -- though momentum slowed in recent years due to media attention and consumer advocacy opposition.

But recently these bills started popping up again in North Carolina, due to a number of fiber to the home municipal developments that have been taking off in the state. Wilson, North Carolina launched a $28 million municipal broadband operation named Greenlight last year, offering symmetrical speeds up to 100Mbps. Other cities like Salisbury began exploring the option too.

That of course riled up local incumbents Time Warner Cable and AT&T, given fiber to the home would provide faster service than either carrier is willing to provide in the region. Fortunately for locals, Time Warner Cable's bungled attempt to force high broadband overages on customers last year directed extra attention Time Warner Cable's way -- and several efforts to derail fiber projects in Salisbury and Wilson were met by some angry and informed grass roots consumer opposition.

Time Warner Cable also wasn't helped by the fact that the chief proponent of their latest bill, Rep. Ty Harrell (D-Raleigh), ultimately resigned after an ethics investigation into his campaign finances -- and Time Warner Cable's bill was defeated. However, it appears the effort has once again returned according to locals, and Time Warner Cable has found themselves a new politician eager to tell communities they cannot deploy fiber in their own backyards because it would make Time Warner Cable unhappy:Again, people are free to argue the merits of whether a community should get into the broadband business all they'd like -- but if the locals decide they'd like to go that route because incumbents are not providing adequate service -- that should be the local citizen's choice -- not yours, and not Time Warner Cable's. If these markets had more competition (something companies like Time Warner Cable fight tooth and nail against at every turn), these communities wouldn't be in this position to begin with.