When our two new representatives, Anne Copp and Natalie Wells, were elected I wished them the best. But unfortunately, their best has not been supportive of our communities.

They both voted to kill HB 238, which would allow a committee to study broadband availability in our state with emphasis on underserved or unserved areas. Well, both Salisbury and Danbury, and to a lesser extent Andover, all have areas that are underserved.

Ask anyone who is trying to sell his or her house if good internet access is not a factor both in the pricing of the house and how fast it will sell. How about running a business from home, or public school, or home school kids unable to get reliable internet service. These are real issues.

This bill, HB238, is the same bill I attempted to pass last year and due to opposition by Fairpoint and other broadband providers, it was defeated. But this year, enough Republicans joined the Democrats in overturning the committee kill recommendation by one vote (167 to 166) and passed the bill 174 to 162.

Fairpoint and their industry allies have for years resisted any attempt to check whether their claims of expanded coverage was correct, or what projects they had done with the FCC millions of dollars of funding they got for broadband expansion in rural areas.

Now we will be able to check, but not thanks to Ms. Copp or Ms. Wells, who would rather vote with big business and against their own districts’ interest.

I write this in the hope that our two state representatives, who are new at this, in the future look at every bill with the well-being of our districts in mind.

Mario Ratski