Jun 20, 2014 - tobacco market to North Carolina's first Gigabit City. ... internet marketing firms, and to open our loca
CITY OF WILSON North Carolina INCORPORATED 1849
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
Tom Wheeler Chairman Federal Communications Commission 445 12th St. SW Washington DC 20554 June 20, 2014 Dear Chairman Wheeler, I am writing today to thank you for your support of broadband expansion throughout the U.S. and to encourage you to do whatever you must to remove state legislation that has restricted its growth. Let me share our experiences here in Wilson, North Carolina, a community of 50,000 population, located halfway between New York and Florida. Our city’s economic history reflects our country’s transition from an agricultural to a global economy as Wilson has evolved from being the world’s largest tobacco market to North Carolina’s first Gigabit City. As mayor of a non partisan City Council. I have worked with local leaders who are able to agree on broad, forward-thinking plans for our community by focusing on our community’s future welfare as the common goal. Our community has benefitted from this nonpartisan approach in many ways including the deployment of our community-owned fiber to the home broadband infrastructure. Our Gigabit network has not only helped retain our historical manufacturing and financial base but has allowed our community to attract 21st century information businesses, such as film effects companies, internet marketing firms, and to open our local labor force to the rest of the world’s employers. This approach has also produced strong enduring results. The City of Wilson’s credit rating was upgraded by Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s in late 2008, shortly after the Greenlight service launched. I am proud to note that Moody’s recently maintained our Aa2/A1 bond rating after 6 years of operating this broadband network, in a report which emphasized the highly responsible nature of our city’s implementation of this Gigabit network, and its projected long term stability. Wilson has a long history of self-reliance and community owned infrastructure development based on experience. In the years when electricity first developed, our community was left behind by the private developers of this new technology. Our response was to develop our own municipal electric utility that now serves six counties. As our economy evolved from a traditional manufacturing, agricultural and textile base to an information base, we forecast once again being left behind by the private industry, who declined our invitation to build a 21st century fiber network together. Our response was to build our own. Now North Carolina state law holds us back from expanding our community generated Gigabit services (found nowhere else in the state) to the five other rural counties we serve with electricity.
P.O. BOX 10 | WILSON, NORTH CAROLINA 27894-0010 | TELEPHONE 252-399-2310 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
We thank you for your support for the deployment of next generation broadband infrastructure by any entity that has the courage and talent to make it happen, whether that is by the public sector, the private sector, or some creative mix of all the above. Our country’s ability to compete in a 21st century global market depends on all options being available. Wilson’s Greenlight Network shows it can be done responsibly by a community itself. Thank you for your interest. If I can provide any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Mayor C. Bruce Rose City of Wilson, North Carolina
