Nebraska Use Public Power Initiative (2008)

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The Nebraska Use Public Power Initiative was proposed as an initiative for the November 2008 ballot in Nebraska. Supporters threw in the towel in June but said they'd be back in 2010, possibly after mounting a legal challenge of Nebraska Legislative Bill 39.[1]

The initiative, had it gone forward and succeeded, would have removed measures currently banning Nebraska's power companies from using technology that could provide telecommunications, including internet access, to the public, through power lines. The initiative is sponsored by Linda Aerni and Paul Schumacher, both of whom helped bring internet access to rural Nebraska in 1994[2].

Support

Supporters of the proposition say that Nebraska's current phone companies and telecommunications providers have lobbied the government extensively, and are using the government as a tool to prevent competition from power companies with access to new, cheaper technologies[3]. They say that new technology now makes it possible to get high-speed internet access through your power line, for less money than most people are now paying for their internet. This technology has been successfully implemented in areas in several other states. It still tends to be somewhat sketchy in rural areas; however, proponents expect this technology to improve quickly, especially if there is an expanding market for it, potentially enabling people in every corner of the state to have cheap, high-speed internet within a few years.

Opposition

Opponents of the proposition say that allowing public power companies to use this new technology would decrease, not increase, competition[4], because public power companies are the only entities with access to consumers' homes and offices through the power lines in question. The power companies would have a total monopoly over the use of this new technology, which could severely dampen the profitability of other telecommunications providers in the state, potentially causing some such providers to stop offering telecommunications services in Nebraska.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Organizers expect petition drives to fail
  2. ↑ http://www.usepublicpower.com/aboutus.asp
  3. ↑ http://www.usepublicpower.com/index.asp
  4. ↑ http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/10/21/news/local/doc471ab67e856a9064620698.txt
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