Company wants to prevent city service
As readers of the Salisbury Post learned Friday, Time-Warner Cable is making a major lobbying effort to kill the fiber optic system the city is currently installing, as well as preventing other N.C. cities from following our (and Wilson’s) lead.
If the fact that Time Warner is using your fees to deny you improved local service bothers you, there are a couple of things you can do about it.
First, write and call Reps. Lorene Coates (919-733-5784) and Fred Steen (919-733-5881) and urge them to vote against House Bill 1252. Call or write Sen. Andrew Brock (919-715-0690) and tell him to vote against Senate Bill 1004, both of which Time Warner wrote to stop competition.
Secondly, whenever your Time Warner cable pixilates (those little square fuzzy interruptions) or stops transmitting or has any other problem, call Time Warner at 877-566-4892 and register a complaint. If we all complain regularly, perhaps Time Warner will get the message.
Oh, and by the way, don’t accept this two-hour period when they say they will show up. Your time is valuable. Insist on a specific time, and hold them to it.
Time-Warner is clearly terrified of the idea of competition from anyone, and especially from the people, through our city governments. It’s up to us to fight the cable monopoly and help Salisbury provide some real competition.
ó John P. Burke
Salisbury
The poor cities
are under attack
Re: article “Industry group part of effort to halt cities’ fiber-optic plans.”
From the city point of view, HB1252 is “underwritten by the industry to keep consumers from receiving better options in telephone, cable, and Internet service.”
City Manager David Treme says, “They have a team of lobbyists, and we have us.”
Fact is, city officials are responding to a call from The League of Municipalities to protest this bill, and the cities are responding in their normal manner. The League is actually one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the state; and it is subsidized by tax-payer money! So don’t believe the “poor us” story. You will find that they always lobby for anything that takes rights from the citizens and gives them to some form of government, just as in the issue of forced annexation.
The truth be told, forced annexation is the “poor us” story. The League is one of if not the most powerful lobbying groups in North Carolina.
Citizens fighting forced annexation are the true David vs Goliath. They have a team of lobbyists and we have us. My eyes have been opened and it scares me that The league can grab the ear of one or two senators and that is all it takes. Progress is stopped. Talk about power. The Good Neighbors of Rowan County are going to Raleigh on Wednesday to fight for our rights to have a vote on annexation. Anyone wanting to go, please call 704-633-1081 and sign up today.
ó Mark Davis
Salisbury