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Leading municipal broadband advocate Jim Baller, a principal of the Baller Herbst Law Group, is at last able to report -- now that state legislative sessions are closing -- on this year's battles to defend the rights of municipalities to provide or facilitate providing broadband.

This epic battle was fueled when a large number of municipalities of all sizes announced plans to explore the possibility of offering fiber-to-the-home or WiFi broadband service and was intensified by ILEC Verizon's success in winning a right-of-first-refusal over muni broadband in Pennsylvania.

Broadband incumbents got legislators in over a dozen states to try to erect similar roadblocks around the US while

The outcome of these battles not only directly affects localities that wish to offer broadband to their residents and businesses -- by any variety of technologies including BPL, optical fiber, wireless and others -- but may set the tone for future battles at the federal and state levels.

On the Jim Baller: Report from the War for Muni Broadband 60-minute audio conference you'll hear answers to these and other key questions:

• Did Baller and other defenders of muni broadband win the day?  If so where and what were the pivotal issues?  
  
  
• Where did incumbents find success?
  
  
• What did Baller learn and what can munis and others take away from the events of 2005?
  
  
• What's likely to happen now and how is the outcome of the 2005 war for muni broadband likely to affect the future?
  
  
• Hear Sam Spencer, editor of BPL Today -- the only publication focused solely on chronicling the broadband over power lines industry -- and others ask Jim Baller dozens of tough questions, get answers.

About Jim Baller

Jim Baller is the founder of the Baller Herbst Law Group, a national law firm specializing in representing local governments and public power utilities in matters involving telecom, cable television, high-speed data and wireless communications, internet access, right-of-way management, pole and conduit attachments, barriers to the public-sector entry into communications and bankruptcy.

His clients include the American Public Power Association (APPA), National Association of Telecom Officers and Advisors, regional and state utility associations and municipal leagues and numerous individual local governments and public power utilities in more than 35 states.

NATOA named him its member of the year for 2001 and the Fiber to the Home Council recently recognized him as "the nation's most experienced and knowledgeable attorney on public broadband matters."

Working regularly with multi-disciplinary teams of legal, financial, accounting, engineering and other technical experts, Baller also assists government entities in making comprehensive telecom plans, developing state-of-the-art telecom systems, searching for strategic partners and integrating right-of-way and zoning ordinances, franchises, licenses, pole-attachment agreements, contracts, forms, permits and other related documents.

As a litigator, Baller has successfully challenged Virginia's and Missouri's barriers to municipal entry into the telecom field.

Baller is a frequent speaker and author on communications matters. For a complete list of representative works, visit http://www.baller.com/.

Baller is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Municipal Telecom, a lifetime member of the National Registry of Who's Who and is recognized in Who's Who in American Law and Who's Who in Emerging Leaders.