Florida WiFi: The Telco’s Play Hardball

via isen.com

Under the [three bills pending before the Florida Legislature], if the phone or cable companies don’t offer a proposal, the cities can go ahead with their own, but only after doing a feasibility study and asking residents to vote on the project at least once ? twice if bonds would be used to finance it.
That would take anywhere from two to four years, one group says.
“No city would look at that process and say, ‘Yeah! We’re going to go down that road,’ ” said Barry Moline, executive director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association, which represents cities that own utilities