Big Telecom Front Group Says Cut Community Broadband to Help Mitigate ‘Fiscal Cliff’

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Joseph P. Fuhr Jr. is a real helper. An economics professor at Widener University and a researcher for the Coalition for the New Economy, Fuhr spent time pondering America’s current debt crisis and impending “fiscal cliff” and has come up with some ideas on how to solve it, starting with ending support for community-owned broadband networks. He shared his findings in a guest column printed the Tallahassee Democrat.

“Generally, [these networks] add to the debt load of the municipality that runs them, a burden that certainly has come true in Florida,” Fuhr warns.

Ask most people where the government spends too much and many will suggest corporate welfare, the military, Medicare/Medicaid, or outdated government programs that have outlived their usefulness. Professor Fuhr thinks the gristle that must go comes from about 100 “government-owned broadband networks,” which he labels as “GONs.”

Readers of the Democrat will probably never learn the “Coalition for the New Economy” is actually a front group largely funded by AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and other telecom industry players that have to compete with community broadband providers.

http://stopthecap.com/2012/12/10/let-the-fuhr-fly-big-telecom-front-group-says-cut-community-broadband-to-help-mitigate-fiscal-cliff/

[msongs]

1. internet needs to be a public utlity accountable to the american people not corporate scum nt

[forestpath]

3. +1

[HiPointDem]

2. this is why we can't have nice things.

[RC]

4. Community internet providers can usually do it cheaper because they just need enough profit for

maintenance.