WAGger's - send a note to your congressperson!

We at Boston WAG would like to chime in that we agree with this recent email from Josh at Free Press, which opposes a bill in Congress which proposes federal legislation stopping the ability for municipal broadband to "compete" with traditional ISPs.

We've already added our names to the petition, but you should to!

Mike

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*From:* Josh Silver, Exec Director [mailto:[email protected]]
*Sent:* Friday, June 10, 2005 2:02 PM
*Subject:* Internet under attack in Congress. Act now.

free press

A bill just introduced in Congress would take away the right of cities
and towns across the country to provide citizens with universal,
low-cost Internet access.

Giant cable and telephone companies don't want any competition -- which
might actually force them to offer lower prices, higher speeds and
service to rural and urban areas.

U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) -- a former telephone company
executive -- has introduced a bill (HR 2726) that would let cable and
telecom companies shut down municipal and community efforts to offer
broadband services.

You can stop this outrageous bill. Send a message to your representative
now.

Next, forward this message to everyone you know ...

No less than the future of all communications is at stake. In a few
years, television, telephone, radio and the Web will be accessed through
a high-speed internet connection. Low-cost alternatives to telephone
(DSL) and cable monopolies are emerging across the country, as cities,
towns, nonprofits and community groups build low-cost "Community
Internet" and municipal broadband systems.

Companies like SBC, Verizon and Comcast have been introducing laws state
by state that would prohibit municipal broadband, undercut local control
and prevent competition. But we've been fighting back -- and winning.

An alliance of public interest groups, local officials, high-tech
innovators and organized citizens have defeated anti-municipal broadband
measures in nine of the 13 states where they've been introduced this year.

What the industry couldn't pass in the states, they're trying to push
through in Washington. Sessions' bill -- the "Preserving Innovation in
Telecom Act" (an Orwellian title if there ever was one) -- would prevent
state and local governments from providing "any telecommunications
service, information service or cable service" anywhere a corporation
offers a similar service.

Congressman Sessions worked for telephone giant SBC for 16 years, and
his wife currently serves as a director of Cingular Wireless, an SBC
subsidiary. SBC and its employees have been Sessions' second-biggest
career patron, pouring more than $75,000 into his campaign coffers.

We can stop this legislation and send a clear message to Congress that
local communities -- not the giant telephone and cable companies --
should determine their own communications needs. But you must act now.

Please send a letter opposing HR 2726

-- and forward this message to everyone you know, asking them to do the
same.

Onward,

Josh Silver
Executive Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net