Letter: Elevating questions on efforts to derail municipal broadband initiatives

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I’m writing relating to Alliance for High quality Broadband Maine’s (AQBM) marketing campaign that was lately waged in my city. On Friday, June 17, a brand new Fb feed, “Broadband For Maine –- Shield Southport,” popped up. The title caught my consideration, and after studying the content material, I questioned their involvement in my island’s group vote.

Southport’s mailboxes have been inundated with AQBM fliers and we solely realized who was backstage after the vote as a result of investigative reporting by Maine Public’s Steve Mistler, “Constitution-Funded Group Campaigns Towards Maine Municipal Broadband, Riling Residents and ‘Companions,’” which revealed that Constitution Communications (Spectrum) financially contributed and their efforts which have been executed by an in-state consulting agency, Resurgam Group.

On July 12, the net podcast Techdirt, ran a narrative, “Constitution’s Operating a Pretend Shopper Group in Maine That’s Killing Group Broadband — With the Assist of A Democratic Advisor.” Karl Bode reported, “It’s not that arduous for a monopoly to spend a number of hundred thousand to scuttle such a vote. That’s nice for them, because it saves them tens of millions in potential aggressive complications, however it could usually wind up hurting the taxpayers these bogus teams fake to be so breathlessly involved about.”