[Dirtbag59]

In case you had any doubt that telecom companies operate similar to crime syndicates.....

How big telecom smothers city-run broadband | Ars Technica

At a meeting three weeks after Bowling introduced Senate Bill 2562, the state’s three largest telecommunications companies—AT&T, Charter, and Comcast Corp.—tried to convince Republican leaders to relegate the measure to so-called “summer study,” a black hole that effectively kills a bill. Bowling, described as “feisty” by her constituents, initially beat back the effort and thought she’d get a vote.

That’s when Joelle Phillips, president of AT&T’s Tennessee operations, leaned toward her across the table in a conference room next to the House caucus leader’s office and said tersely, “Well, I’d hate for this to end up in litigation,” Bowling recalls.