New America Foundation Report Finds Municipal Broadband Providers Gouging Consumers

[Commentary] In its second annual report assessing broadband speeds and prices in various nations, the New America Foundation reports some disturbing findings. But my reason for pointing this out is to show the absurdity of the New America report, for it purports to make the case that US private sector broadband providers charge too much relative to providers in other nations.

But if US private sector providers are fat, lazy monopolists earning fat profits, why don’t these municipal providers who charge much higher prices than foreign providers not charge much less? Perhaps they are run by lazy incredibly inefficient government bureaucrats? Perhaps they are paying for welfare for the poor on the backs of the excessive revenues they are extracting from their captive broadband customers? Or perhaps their prices, and the prices of comparable US private sector providers, are in fact, not out of line at all. Of course, the last explanation is the right one.