Municipal Networks as Alternative to Commercial Broadband?

kenny asks: "There was a front page Wall Street Journal article last month (Aug. 17--sub. required) about local municipalities like Tacoma, Wash. and Coldwater, Mich. building out public fiber-optic networks through tax-free bond issues and run like local utilities. My question is what's been people's experience with municipal broadband networks? It seems like it's made people happy, and if the internet is like a public utility and if companies are dragging their feet about providing service, why shouldn't municipalities take it upon themselves to deliver service for their constituents?"

"Universally, it seems, people get better service and prices when such networks are implemented. It also forces telecom companies operating in the area to offer better service and prices as well, in short, to compete. But it's also increased companies' lobbying efforts against such municipal activity and it's not hard to see why such companies like AT&T Broadband, Charter Communications (controlled by Microsoft), and Qwest don't like it."

Not many municipalities are saavy enough to think about deploying this sort of infrastructure, however. For those in that situation, what kind of lobbying efforts must a municipality put together before village/town/city officials will take notice? If the government does notice, what kind of arguments should be made to convince them that it might be worthwhile to make such an undertaking?

Comments

Re:Governments should stick to things they know

[sracer9]

I have to agree with most of what you say. I have always been a proponent for the private sector providing goods & services. However, here in Tacoma, this all happened as a result of the cable companies not being able to deliver. Like most places, we went through several of em'. From Viacom to TCI and now to AT&T. A few years ago, Viacom/TCI completely drug their feet on providing services to areas within the city. The residents were upset that they couldn't get standard basic TV services etc.. The City of Tacoma decided that adding a cable network to its utilities wasn't so bad an idea as it would extend services to areas that couldn't already get it, as well as provide consumers with a choice (where cable was available). All in all, it's worked out pretty good in Tacoma. Oddly enough, AT&T sure worked their butts off to get service in to previously un-served areas once Click was there. Now, most residents in Tacoma have a choice between Click (the City owned cable), AT&T, Qwest DSL and others.

I'm not sure if this sort of thing would work elsewhere, but in Tacoma, it exists due to the existing private sector companies not providing the services to begin with. Sometimes competition, even from public utilities, is a *good* thing.