For many years, we were one of the only websites talking about the fact that phone companies were writing, lobbying for and passing state laws that banned your town and city from wiring itself with broadband, even if those same companies refused to serve you. What people in those communities wanted was deemed irrelevant.

Then came Philly's Wi-Fi project and their very public run-in with Verizon, after which the mainstream media attention forced these companies to quiet their efforts somewhat (and play dumb before Congress). Yet, some states (such as North Carolina) are still passing these bills at the behest of the phone companies.

A bipartisan bill proposed this week by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) would overrule these state-level bans (14 so far) on municipal broadband deployment. Dubbed the Community Broadband Act of 2007, the bill also contains safeguards to ensure municipalities cannot discriminate against private providers.Here are links to the bill itself, Boucher's floor statement and the press release (all in pdf format).