Many of you know that the non-profit Mountain Area Information
Network has worked for many years to provide an alternative to AT&T
and Charter for Internet access.

Today this mission is in jeopardy. If the Asheville City Council
does not act on April 24, MAIN must vacate a City-owned cell tower
and shut down a major part of its Asheville network on May 1.

Many of your friends and neighbors will lose Internet access. And
MAIN’s ability to upgrade and expand our broadband service will be
greatly limited, making Asheville even more dependent on AT&T and
Charter.

We need your help.

Please review the notice to MAIN subscribers below and then call or
e-mail the members of City Council (contact info below).

Ask City Council to allow MAIN to continue providing nonprofit
Internet access via the City-owned tower.

For a More Democratic Media!

MAIN Staff and Board of Directors

Dear MAIN Subscriber:

We are writing to inform you that your Internet service via MAIN may
be terminated May 1, 2012. The reason is that your service from MAIN
is delivered via a cell-tower owned by the City of Asheville, which
could require MAIN to vacate the tower on May 1.

We apologize for the possible disruption of service, but we are
hopeful that it can be prevented.

The decision to have MAIN vacate the tower was made at the
staff-level. MAIN is currently requesting a policy directive by the
Asheville City Council to prevent this action, and we need your
help.

On March 21, the MAIN Board of Directors passed a resolution (see
below) asking the City Council to grant MAIN access to this
cell-tower for 36 months. This in-kind support has a commercial
value of approximately $60,000 (including past-due rent).

We want to be clear: MAIN is NOT requesting any funding from the
City of Asheville.

As you know, the City of Asheville routinely awards grants and
subsidies to for-profit companies to locate or expand facilities in
our community. Recently the City awarded $3.5 million in incentives
to New Belgium Brewery. Last June, the City awarded approximately $2
million in subsidies to Linamar, a Canadian auto-parts manufacturer.

While MAIN is a nonprofit, we believe our unique public-service
mission merits a small fraction of the support provided these
for-profit enterprises. In return, MAIN is prepared to invest a
minimum of $25,000 to upgrade and expand our broadband network in
Asheville.

MAIN also plans to seek additional private funding as well as
federal broadband support proposed in the National Broadband Plan.
The $60,000 value of City tower space would qualify as “in kind
matching support” to attract future broadband investments in our
community.

As you know, MAIN is the only organization in Asheville dedicated to
bridging the broadband Digital Divide for individual households and
small businesses, a goal shared by the regional Economic Development
Coalition to which the City belongs.

The Asheville City Council meets on April 24, just six days before
the May 1 deadline.

Please contact Council members and urge them to support MAIN’s
request for continued access to the City-owned cell tower. Again,
this request is ONLY for tower space. MAIN is NOT requesting any
funding.

Thanks for supporting MAIN’s unique public-service mission!

MAIN Board of Directors

Asheville City Council contact information: