We hope Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposed broadband legislation is just the start of an effort to expand faster internet service into rural parts of the Volunteer State.
The governor’s Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act, which he introduced Thursday at a news conference, would lift current restrictions on the state’s 23 electric cooperatives that have kept them from providing broadband internet service to some 2.5 million residential and business customers across the state.
His proposal also would provide $45 million in subsidies or taxpayer-funded grants to existing for-profit telecom providers to expand their service into rural areas.
Curiously, the state’s seven municipally owned electric services, such as Chattanooga’s EPB, would be barred from expanding their services but could partner with cooperatives in the wholesale distribution of service.
Haslam’s reason for not allowing municipally owned services to be a part of the retail equation is because they’re already quasi-government supported, he said. They also don’t have to pay income taxes.