Telecommunication Issue Sides each Proclaim Victory

[SOURCE: Globe Gazette, AUTHOR: John Skipper john.skipper@globegazette.com]
Both sides of the municipal broadband debate claimed victory one day after 16 Iowa cities approved the measure and 15 turned it down. In North Iowa, voters in Mason City, Charles City and Hampton all approved the measure which gives the cities the option of building their own telecommunications utility systems. Officials of Project Taxpayer Protection, a Mediacom-funded organization that spent $1.5 million statewide in advertising opposed to the measure, said today the overall results were encouraging. Charles King, a Mediacom vice president said that in the communities Mediacom serves where the Opportunity Iowa referendum was placed on the ballot and approved, decisions were made by a relatively small number of citizens. Mark Daley of Opportunity Iowa said the most important aspect of the referenda was that the voters were the ones making this decision. “Forming or not forming a communications utility is and should remain a local decision. It is not something that should be decided by changing state or federal laws,” he said. “We are not aware of any community that has active plans to actually build a communications utility. Only time will tell how Mediacom and the telecom monopolies will serve the future needs of those communities who no longer have the municipal alternative.”
http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2005/11/09/local/doc43719b7580139317623885.prt

* 17 Iowa Cities Closer to Muni Broadband
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6282760.html?display=Breaking+News