I'm on the road this week, leaving me little time to post in depth, but wanted to make sure readers are aware of an action alert posted by Stop the Cap!:

Stop the Cap! has learned lobbyists for North Carolina’s cable and phone companies are growing concerned over increasing opposition to their custom-written duopoly protection bill that will ruin community broadband developments across the state and threaten ones already up and running. Now they’re in a mad dash to push S.87 (the Senate version of H.129) through the Senate Tuesday before you have a chance to call and express outrage over this corporate protectionism. Our sources tell us the bill has been yanked from the Senate Commerce Committee and is moving faster than North Carolina’s cable and DSL broadband to the Finance Committee, where bill sponsors hope for a quick voice vote and no public comment allowed.

This is incredibly disappointing given a recent finding that North Carolina has the worst broadband in the nation [pdf]. No surprise to see Time Warner Cable acting hastily to get this bill through before the public learns more about it. The bill is terrible for the citizens and businesses of North Carolina, but great for wanna-be monopolists like Time Warner Cable and CenturyLink. By ensuring communities cannot build better networks, they will be free to continue letting North Carolina slide into digital oblivion as they concentrate their investments in communities with actual competition. Click on the link above to Stop the Cap! for information on who to contact to stop this attack from Time Warner Cable on the right of local communities to decide what is best for themselves.