Protect Internet access for rural Georgians

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Windstream and AT&T don't want to bring high-speed Internet to Georgia's Black, rural communities. They'd rather try to outlaw competition from cities and towns working to develop their own public broadband networks, ensuring homes without broadband today don't get it in the future. Urge your state Representative to reject Big Telecom's municipal broadband ban and protect Internet access for all of us.

Here’s the letter we’ll send to your Representative (you can add a personal comment using the box in the form):

Dear Members of the House of Representatives,

HB 282, the deceptively titled "Municipal Broadband Investment Act," would do nothing of the sort. This corporate giveaway rewards the decades-long failure of the private cable and phone companies to bring effective high-speed Internet access to underserved communities.

Rather than investing in long-promised network build-outs vital to Georgia's economic development, the telecoms are investing lobbying resources into outlawing competition from cities and towns working to develop their own public broadband networks. Since rural communities have been largely abandoned by the private telecoms, municipal broadband is many residents' only hope for connecting to the outside world.

HB 282 is a rehash of last session's SB 313, in turn drawn from the "model" municipal broadband ban pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in statehouses across the country. The end goal of all such legislation is to enshrine in state (and federal) law the false notion that broadband access is a luxury rather than a utility, so that the telecoms can stop providing lifeline service to low-income and rural communities altogether.

Georgia has the opportunity to take a stand for underserved communities in this important national fight over the future of broadband access. I urge you in the strongest possible terms to vote no on HB 282 and protect the right to connect for all Georgians.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

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