Listen to this great interview by the Institute for Local Self Reliance of one of Pinetops’ Town Commissioners, Suzanne Coker-Craig, who is forced to watch her rural Gigabit town be disconnected from Wilson Greenlight internet service because of North Carolina’s anti-competitive state law (commonly known as H129).
Said Coker-Craig: “This is a situation where Pinetops and other rural areas of North Carolina are not being served by private providers with high speed good quality internet service. So we see this very similarly to how power was provided back in the 30s and 40s when rural areas could not get power, local governments stepped in. And this is the same thing for us. We consider that high speed quality internet service in today’s economy is a utility. And when you can’t have private providers willing to do this, why not let progressive municipal governments like Wilson help us out with this?And so we think this law is really a significant hindrance. Our areas are already struggling economically, and we are losing population. This is only going to further that. It is not going to allow us to help ourselves grow, to help ourselves, pick ourselves up out the economic slump we are already in.”
Her audio interview is found here.
Like her Facebook page: “NC Small Towns Need Internet Access”.