NC Lawmakers end 2009 session. Thanks for your help.

Good news for those who care about access to better broadband in NC. After months of wrangling, neither of the bills that were designed to protect broadband monopolies passed. One is still in committee, but it wasn’t completed or signed into law.

This is really encouraging. Wilson continues to add new Greenlight members daily and we’ll keep pushing forward. Thank you for your help, because the social media world really went to bat for us on this one.

That said, the cable company pushed one failed bill in 2007 and two this year. They haven’t made any of them law yet, but I have no doubt they’ll keep trying. HB 1252 may be studied during the winter.

The lawmakers return in May.

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Wilson lauded as good example in national story about rural broadband

If you find the ebb and flow of technology news a little hard to follow, you can find a great summary of tech news each month on the Business Week CEO Guide to Technology.

In the magazine’s most recent podcast, broadband expert Craig Settles mentioned Wilson’s Greenlight as a role model in the deployment of rural broadband.

I’ll let you listen for yourself, but to give you the Cliffs Notes version, Settles talks about the stimulus plan and its national efforts to make broadband available to under-served areas. He also mentions that broadband providers fight local governments or non profits tooth and nail when they want to fill in the gaps.