But what about the principle?

The city of Wilson is touting its victory in the General Assembly — a bill restricting municipalities' right to build fiber-optic networks exempts Wilson and other cities that already have such a network in place. Having escaped the noose tied by the big cable companies and compliant legislators, Wilson is abandoning the principle that all municipalities should be allowed to serve the best interests of their residents.

Wilson and other opponents of the cable law had marshaled an impressive array of supporters for the concept that provision of high-speed Internet is a 21st-century utility, as essential today as electricity was a century ago, when scores of cities got into the electricity business because the big utilities were not interested in serving small towns and rural areas. Wilson boldly gambled on the broadband future in 2007, when it established its Greenlight service, offering an Internet connection with speeds several times faster than any available through commercial cable services. Corporations such as BB&T, which processes millions of check and credit card transactions through Greenlight's high speed data service, supported the city's objections to the restrictions. Also lining up with Wilson, the N.C. League of Municipalities and other opponents of the cable company monopoly protection bill were high-tech entities such as Google. These companies know that the best advances in technology come through an unfettered market and that a competitive market is best for the customer. If our legislators had bothered to ask any Greenlight customer or customer of any other municipal broadband service in North Carolina, they would find enthusiasm for the service (full disclosure: I am a satisfied Greenlight customer).

Wilson might believe it has won its war against the politically powerful cable companies, even if it did have to abandon principle and allow the majority of the state's residents to miss out on this opportunity. But the cable companies have been defeated before — on the principle of allowing competition and "Internet freedom" — only to come back the next year with another restrictive bill. This time, Wilson's Greenlight service is protected, but next year, compliant legislators might do the cable companies' bidding again by introducing legislation to nibble away at Greenlight's franchise and then nibble again and again.

With this bill to restrict Internet access, the new Republican majority in the General Assembly has demonstrated its commitment to big business over the interests of individual consumers.