Strong opposition from municipalities helped postpone a Kansas bill...

Strong opposition from municipalities helped postpone a Kansas bill that would bar municipalities from creating their own networks (CD Feb 4 p12), said Larry Gates, utilities director for the city of Chanute. “There were a lot of emails, a lot of press, a lot of stuff on Facebook and Twitter, a huge campaign from all sizes of municipalities,” said Gates, a strong critic of SB-304, in an interview Monday. Backers of the bill denied the impetus was Google’s move to build local networks in the state, but Gates doesn’t buy it. “It was all about Google,” he said. Google had no immediate comment.