We are excited to continue our history series with Jim Baller of the Baller Herbst Law Firm. This is Jim’s third time on the program, having joined us for Episode 57 and Episode 63.
We continue our discussion with a recap of the events of 2004, including Jim’s work with Lafayette to find a compromise to the ALEC bill that would have effectively banned municipal networks in Louisiana and the Verizon-led campaign to prevent Pennsylvania communities from following the muni fiber path of Kutztown.
We discuss several of the state battles over the years and the near passage of the Community Broadband Act by the U.S. Congress. Also, how some of the big telecom carriers started to invest in FTTH after the model was proved by community networks. We’ll have Jim back for future shows as we continue charting the history of community owned networks.
We want your feedback and suggestions for the show – please e-mail us or leave a comment below. Also, feel free to suggest other guests, topics, or questions you want us to address.
This show is 23 minutes long and can be played below on this page or via iTunes or via the tool of your choice using this feed.
Listen to previous episodes here. You can can download this Mp3 file directly from here.
Thanks to Break the Bans for the music, licensed using Creative Commons.