AT&T, CenturyLink Back Missouri Muni Broadband Limits
AT&T and CenturyLink supported municipal broadband restrictions that could be passed this week by the Missouri Legislature. An amendment to a traffic citations bill (SB-765) would prohibit local governments from providing a communications service that competes with one or more…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
service providers in the jurisdiction. Missouri House and Senate legislators entered conference on the bill Thursday; the limits are opposed by community broadband advocates (see 1605050051). "We do not oppose the use of government owned networks (GON) in areas where advanced infrastructure has not been, and is not likely to be, reasonably and timely deployed,” an AT&T spokesman said. “However, we also believe that if a governmental entity seeks to deploy or operate a GON in a market that can be served by the private sector, there should be safeguards in place to ensure a ‘level playing field.’” A CenturyLink spokeswoman agreed: "We believe the best approach is for municipalities to explore workable solutions with existing Internet service providers. CenturyLink will continue to work closely with communities, local leaders and policymakers on creative public-private partnerships that bring high-speed Internet services to more American homes and businesses. However, if local governments chose to compete with private Internet service providers, there needs to a level-playing field." The sponsor of SB-765, Missouri state Sen. Eric Schmitt (R), is reviewing all amendments added to the bill, emailed his spokesman. There will likely be a conference committee meeting on the bill early this week, which is the last week of the session, he said. The Missouri Legislature has until 6 p.m. Friday to pass legislation.