What else is there to say?

SBC, in the midst of a massive P.R. blitz to convince opinion-makers that they are the salvation of mankind, showed their hand this week in stripping away the deciding vote to bring Charlestown into the 21st century.

Yes, the fabulous news reported here last week that our sister city was going to take the plunge and erect a citywide wireless network turns out to be a false promise.

Even though SBC refuses to bring universal high-speed Internet to the city, they were able to forestall the implementation of a municipal wireless service that would have paid for itself and generated great income for the city's coffers.

With House Bill 1148 set for a June 30, 2005 effective date, it seems that Charlestown will be one of those city's who will be forever under the thumb of the telcos. The law would make it nigh unto impossible to provide universal service and would, in essence, let SBC and its ilk determine who survives and who dies in the areas of job creation, job retention, education and effective service provision.

Greg Gapsis details the fiasco that took place in Clark County in this story...oops, The Evening News decided it wasn't worthwhile to post today's news on its Web site today.