No law dictates that private telecommunication businesses must provide every North Carolina household and business with high-speed Internet. The companies are free to do business wherever they wish.
But, 15 years after Internet use became common, the telecoms still do not provide high-speed service to much of North Carolina. They can't expect people to wait any longer.
The telecommunications industry wants the legislature to make it more difficult for local governments to offer high-speed Internet service. The giant companies say they can't compete with local governments in towns of a couple thousand people.
Specifically, their bill would prohibit local governments from borrowing to build Internet infrastructure unless the public first voted to sell the bonds.
The Journal has long argued that government borrowing without a vote of the people is both unwise and unconstitutional. But that is borrowing backed by the "full faith and credit" of the borrower, in this case, the people of the jurisdiction involved. So, if that is what the telecoms want, we support them.
But that protection is already written into the state constitution. When governments borrow for public utility infrastructure, they generally pledge as collateral only the facilities that will be built and the revenues produced by the utility involved. In these cases, that would mean the equipment needed for the Internet service and the revenues it generates.
If the General Assembly were to give the telecoms what they want, they would be setting a higher standard for Internet borrowing than exists for most other government borrowing. And legislators would look hypocritical in passing such legislation because they've been borrowing without bond referenda for many years.
The issue here is that North Carolina's small towns and rural areas need fast Internet service so they can attract business. With high-speed Internet, people can work from home, too, thus increasing the likelihood that small Internet-based businesses can take advantage of lower costs in rural areas. Also many people currently work from home. They can move to rural areas and stay employed by urban companies if they have a high-speed Internet connection.
These communities can't wait until it will be profitable for a private company to serve them adequately. So, using the democratic process, they are asking their local governments to establish service for them. This is reminiscent of the early 20th century when small towns in this state developed their own electrical grids rather than wait for the big utilities to do so.
If the telecoms don't want local governments to establish these Internet services, they should rush into these areas and establish service now.
And the General Assembly should ignore the telecoms on this issue.
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