FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
CJ Frogozo, CJ@FitzGibbonMedia.com, 310.570.2622
Rachel Tardiff, Rachel@FitzGibbonMedia.com, 202.746.1507
New York, NY – “Today, Georgia’s House of Representatives will vote on a bill to ban local government from creating broadband Internet service networks in Georgia even when private industry has failed to provide broadband access to poor and rural communities.
“Black and rural communities are already greatly affected by the lack of access to quality high-speed Internet service. Giving Big Telecom even greater control over our ability to connect online would further deepen existing inequality, and risk leaving a large segment of Georgia’s residents permanently outside the modern Internet-driven economy.
“This bill banning municipal broadband is the latest iteration of “model” legislation produced by corporate bill mill the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC’s corporate members include telecom giants AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox, as well as a host of smaller regional providers. ALEC has been advancing profit-driven legislation to reduce access to affordable broadband Internet options across the country.
“At ColorOfChange.org, we strongly encourage the Georgia House of Representatives to vote in the best interest of all Georgia’s communities and not in favor of a giveaway to Big Telecom. Without cities and towns stepping up to fill the void it is unlikely that rural Georgians and other underserved communities will ever get access to crucial broadband Internet service. Contrary to what the bill’s name—the “Municipal Broadband Investment Act”—suggests, the legislation is intended to ensure that AT&T and Windstream never have to compete with locally run, non-profit broadband Internet service providers.”
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With more than 850,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest Black online civil rights organization.