President Obama has called on cities and towns to create their own broadband service for their residents to compete with large corporations.
Obama was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa touting the plan to get states to relax their rules against municipalities setting up their own networks. Cedar Rapids got an exemption from the FCC to create their own networks a few years ago.
Obama was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa touting the plan to get states to relax their rules against municipalities setting up their own networks. Cedar Rapids got an exemption from the FCC to create their own networks a few years ago.
Republicans in Congress reacted immediately.
The Hill:
"In Tennessee we have a term to describe people like President Obama — tone-deaf,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said in a statement.
“At a time when Americans think the biggest problem facing our nation today is big government, you would think he'd have gotten the message by now,” she added. “We don't need unelected bureaucrats like FCC [Federal Communications Commission] Chairman Tom Wheeler dictating to our states what they can and can't do with respect to protecting their limited taxpayer dollars and private enterprises.”
In 19 states, there are laws on the books limiting local governments from building out their own municipal Internet services.
The FCC has been asked by two cities — in North Carolina and in Tennessee — to override those laws. Obama on Wednesday urged the FCC to do just that.
“I’m on the side of competition,” Obama said during his speech at a Cedar Falls utility plant.
Supporters of the move say that it would help create more competition for broadband service, and many Democrats cheered Obama’s call. According to the FCC, more than half the country has just one option for high-speed broadband Internet service with download speeds of 25 Mbps or higher.
Critics, however, say that it would amount to Washington intervention in local laws.
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