Why Chattanooga is not the "Poster Child" for Municipal Broadband

[Commentary] While the White House's and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposals to promote municipal broadband may make for good political theater, and even assuming Chattanooga's (TN) fiber system is the most successful municipal broadband venture to date, the claim that Chattanooga is the reason why the FCC should use questionable legal authority to try to preempt state laws in order to allow local governments to build broadband networks glosses over several important details. Chattanooga is unique in many respects, so care must be taken when generalizing this somewhat unique situation to other communities.