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Salisbury, NC, Fends Off Comical Attack on Community Broadband
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Cities investigating community fiber networks are used to scurrilous attacks from both incumbents and anti-government "think tanks," which are often directly funded by private service providers. Usually the attacks aren't as silly as the one that the John Locke Foundation levied against Salisbury, North Carolina.
The Salisbury Post covers the situation. Indyweek's coverage was a bit more hostile, and appropriately so.
Though attacks on community broadband from anti-government groups are common, this report betrays either a stunning lack or technical expertise on the part of the writers, or an assumption that the reader is totally ignorant. Fortunately, Salisbury has confronted them head on, as should any community in a similar position.
Back in 2005, the American Public Power Association debunked many of the same claims and the same flawed methodology used then to attack municipal cable providers. We have collected other reports since then that debunk the claims of these anti-government groups.
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