The nation’s need to invest more in infrastructure...

The nation’s need to invest more in infrastructure “is by no means a justification for turning the Internet over to private parties to derive maximum profits at the expense of consumers,” said Montgomery County, Md., Councilman Hans Riemer Wednesday, responding to comments by NCTA President Michael Powell. “Because the Internet is not regulated as a public utility, it grows and thrives,” Powell said Tuesday at NCTA’s 2014 Cable Show. “The contribution citizens make to ISPs in the form of providing access to their communities’ public assets such as rights-of-way, many times for free or less than market rates, is often forgotten in statements such as Mr. Powell’s,” Riemer said in a statement. “And I find it ironic that Mr. Powell, speaking for an industry that has torn up the nation’s streets on an ongoing basis, would use potholes as an example of why private industry should be unregulated when using public assets."