Washington State Removes All Barriers to Municipal Broadband
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:
Washington State Removes All Barriers to Municipal Broadband:
Yesterday, following weeks of anticipation, State Gov. Jay Islee signed the Public Broadband Act (H.B. 1336), removing all restrictions on public broadband in the state of Washington, according to the bill's primary sponsor, State Rep. Drew Hansen, D-23. This critical leap forward in Washington drops the number of states with laws restricting community broadband to 17.
(...) The bill grants public entities previously restricted by statute from offering retail telecommunications services the unrestricted authority to provide Internet services to end-users. This includes Public Utility Districts (PUDs) and district ports, as well as, towns, second-class cities (defined as those with populations of 1500 or more which have not adopted a city charter) and counties, currently not operating under Washington's Optional Municipal Code. (Washington's charter counties, first-class cities, and cities operating under the state's Optional Municipal Code already had the power to construct telecommunications networks and offer Internet access services to their residents, without a third-party business overseeing network management operations.)
(...) The public reaction to the passage of Washington's Public Broadband Act has been highly celebratory, with many Washingtonians promptly calling on their local governments, regional ports and PUDs, to both demand public networks and air their grievances against incumbent, monopoly Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the region.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.