Broadband for Everyone, NC

In an act of seeming exasperation last week, Senator Hoyle took a bill whose purpose was to remove e-NC's December 2011 sunset, and shovelled his anti-muni bbnd bill - H1209 --into it, placed it on the Senate Calendar with no advance warning, and obtained a Senate vote passing it on the floor (46 to 1 - with Senator Atwater of Chatham County voting the single no.").Senator Hoyle was apparently frustrated that the first House Committee where his bill has been assigned (Chaired by Rep. Faison - D- Orange, Caswell Counties) is sitting on his bill,  a bill which by all measures would set our state backwards in time and hand control of our broadband (and economic) future to TWC and AT&T, incumbents who believe that our broadband capacity "is sufficient."  This notion was defied last month when we saw more than 40 North Carolina communities submit proposals to Google to be a partner on its fiber to the home project, including - drumroll -  Hoyle's city and county. But Senator Hoyle does not care, he is retiring...and he obviously does not use the internet in his own hometown. Whether there will be any House action on Hoyle's H1840 is unknown.