NCLM Southern City Volume 71, Issue 2, 2021

NCLM.ORG 25 “It's now been 25 years of hoping the private sector would develop competition on its own, and it has not,” Mitchell said. The arguments against this intervention do not have merit, according to Mitchell. Those are that, one, government should not be in the broadband business and two, the telecommunication companies are operating on their own networks, and allowing local governments to share its infrastructure puts the telecoms at an unfair competitive disadvantage. The 2011 law itself is clear on this point, stating that its restrictions are “necessary to ensure that the State does not indirectly subsidize competition with pri- vate industry through actions by cities…” “Most telecommunications companies in the United States were built with some sort of government support,” Mitchell said, noting that Suddenlink is included among the beneficiary companies. “[That] is an important fact to consider when judging what is a fair playing field today. There are very few companies that compete today that did not receive some significant government boost for their business plans over the years. It's hypocritical to complain that government cannot now intervene to ensure everyone has high quality broadband access.” ˘˘˘ Just down the road, New Bern Mayor Dana Outlaw is contending with the same issue. As one of the cities that wrote to Attorney General Stein in January, Outlaw has continued his advocacy on this issue throughout 2021, and published an op-ed on the topic in late April. “That cities and towns are not free under current state law to more fully explore using their own assets to partner with private internet companies is simply unacceptable given what is at stake,” Outlaw wrote, adding that the city receives so many complaints regarding internet service in the area, that they’ve established a separate citizen portal just for that topic. Outlaw also references the monopolistic conditions at play. “At its core, the problem faced by eastern North Carolina is a lack of competition,” Outlaw wrote. “Firms like Suddenlink operate as de facto monopolies in many areas of our towns and cities, with consumers unable to bring market pressures to bear that would lead to service improvements and better pricing.” Washington City Manager Jonathan Russell echoes Outlaw’s sentiments. Speaking on the broadband standstill his city faces, he is clear that he doesn’t prefer any specific provider, nor hopes to “get into the broadband business.” Rather, he simply wants competition to be introduced. “The lack of competition in the market is slowing down progress. The legislation in place is limiting that competition,” Russell said. “We’re not lobbying for one provider over another. We just want to give citizens a variety of choices.” The Broadband Market Failure