Aunt Bee Says, "Leave Us Alone!"

Maybe its that they thought that everybody from North Carolina was like Barney Fife. Or was that Gomer? Whatever.

The glorious forces of the private sector are here to save us. Save us from ourselves, of course...because we're just not smart enough to figure things out all by our lonesome. And so what if they make a little money while they're at it--for doing things that we're already paying to have done.

Connected Nation. Heard of 'em? Well, they are going to fix us backward North Carolinians right up:

Citizens across North Carolina are clamoring for better access to the Internet, but cable and telecom companies say it's too expensive to build service that reaches them. Now the industry has decided it is willing to pay an outside group, Connected Nation, to collect data about who's stuck on dialup, ostensibly to deliver improved service. But critics say the motive is hardly altruistic, charging that cable and telecom companies are more interested in warding off regulators than in bridging the digital divide.
...
But North Carolina already has a state government authority called e-NC Authority doing the same work. In fact, e-NC did some of the first broadband maps in the country in 2001. The organization, which is a state authority housed in the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, also gives matching incentive grants to encourage the industry to build out to the state's most under-served areas.

If the state were to fund Connected Nation, it could serve as a stamp of approval for a group critics say is merely an industry front. It would also signal a lack of confidence in an existing state effort that's garnered rave reviews from across the country.

"I think e-NC is the model of how you do it right," says Art Brodsky, communications director of Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C. public interest group. "They do their own surveys and they're not industry-backed. E-NC has a proven track record."

"This appears to be the first public step of an aggressive hostile takeover attempt by Connected Nation and its Bell company ally, AT&T," says Drew Clark, executive director of BroadbandCensus.com, a Web site designed to provide information about broadband availability to the public. Clark has called e-NC "arguably the most advanced effort of its kind in the nation."

...

How'd things go when they tried this in Kentucky?

...

But not just any service: Brodsky's report says Connect Kentucky pushed AT&T's DSL, rather than competing services from independent companies.

According to Brodsky's sources, "Connect Kentucky is nothing more than a sales force and front group for AT&T paid for by the telecommunications industry and by state and federal governments that has achieved far more in publicity than it has in actual accomplishment. Connect helps to promote AT&T services, while lobbying at the state capitol for the deregulation legislation the telephone company wants."

Connected Nation has denied these claims.

Brodsky says, "There is no evidence that any of the millions of dollars they have spent of primarily public money has done any good for anyone. Connect talks a good game, but a lot of what they claim just hasn’t materialized."

E-NC has a strong track record, he says. "You’ve got a world-class, homegrown operation down there that has infinitely more knowledge and expertise than any other state organization." By contrast, he says Connected Nation is "sort of like a franchise—the Applebee’s of telecom policy."

Folks, if you are concerned about Big Telco coming to NC to try to tell us how to improve broadband access--when we already have a proven team of local experts in place--then call your NC Representative today.