Publicly Owned Broadband Networks: Averting the Looming Broadband Monopoly
The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/publicly-owned-broadband-networks-averting-looming-broadband-monopoly/Quietly, virtually unreported on, a new player has emerged in the United States telecommunications sector: publicly owned networks. Today over 54 cities, big and small, own citywide fiber networks while another 79 own citywide cable networks. Over 3 million people have access to telecommunications networks whose objective is to maximize value to the community in which they are located rather than to distant stockholders and corporate executives.
For several years ILSR has been tracking telecommunications developments at the local and state level. We have worked with businesses and communities protecting their right to self-determination via the fundamental infrastructure for the information-based economy. This report offers some of our findings.
