UPDATE, March 8: We won! On Thursday, the Georgia House of Representatives voted 94-70 to defeat the Municipal Broadband Investment Act, which would have blocked communities from building their own broadband networks.

This is a huge victory for Georgia residents who are not being served by existing broadband providers and want the right to build fast, affordable networks that reach everyone. Special congratulations to the Georgia Municipal Association, which led this fight from the start.  

Just in time for today's vote on the terrible broadband bill in the Georgia State Assembly, the Wall Street Journal published a report on the state’s broadband situation. The article looks at why big telecom companies are so threatened by the public’s demand for access to the fast, open Internet. 

Here's an excerpt: 

In Stewart County, Ga., home to about 6,000 people, about 400 computers at the public elementary and high schools share a single 10 megabit-per-second connection—slow enough that a YouTube video on violin lessons once clogged up the entire network, said Bill Haney, the technology specialist for county schools.

The schools would like to tap into a regional broadband network used by several nearby counties. But the move would be outlawed under the Windstream-backed bill [HB 282]. The cable company is offering a slower connection at $10,000 a month, a more than sevenfold increase from the district's current Internet tab, said Mr. Haney, adding that even with significant federal subsidies, that price would be too high.

It just doesn't make sense to prevent underserved communities from building their own high-speed broadband networks. Yet that’s what 19 states have already done. We can't let Georgia become #20.

If you live in Georgia, please take a moment to call your state representative and demand a "No" vote on HB 282. If you live in another state, please share this post far and wide and raise some noise about this bill.