This podcast between Erin Wynia, Chief Legislative Counsel at the NC League of Municipalities and Chris Mitchell at ILSR, showcases a frustrating parallel playing out in the state of North Carolina. We hear about large swaths of the state with little or no broadband after more than a decade of being served just by the private sector. How mayors have banded together in eastern North Carolina to complain to the state Attorney General about the sub-par broadband (and possibly fraudulent behavior) of the large cable incumbent serving their region. We hear about a large majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives favoring legislation to simply allow municipalities to lease their fiber to the private sector to create internet choice. And yet we learn how the leadership in the Senate and the House continue to block legislation aimed at solving the state’s broadband crisis because of the undue influence of those same large telecom and cable incumbents. Erin and Chris discuss solutions, including how local businesses, hospitals, faith-based and educational leaders in our communities must make loud their public voices and repeat that North Carolina’s Republicans need to help solve the state’s broadband problem in this COVID environment the way the Arkansas Republicans just did.