Plan to kill municipal broadband fails in state legislature

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Cities and towns in Maine that want to provide their own broadband service just helped defeat a proposed law that would have made it impossible to build taxpayer-funded networks.

"The bill, introduced by Rep. Nate Wadsworth, a Hiram Republican, would impose stringent conditions that critics say would make it all but impossible for Maine towns and cities to build their own high-speed networks when cable and telephone companies decline to provide upgraded service," the Portland Press Herald wrote Tuesday in an extensive article on the proposal.

Municipal officials and one ISP that has partnered with a city for a municipal project objected to the bill in a hearing on Tuesday. The next day, a legislative technology committee voted 12-0 against the bill, "effectively killing it," the Press Herald wrote in a followup article. The Maine House has a 77-71 Democratic majority.

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