Municipal Networks

The United States must act aggressively to meet two core broadband challenges. One is to ensure that all Americans have affordable access to the Internet at levels sufficient to enable them to participate fully in modern life. The other is to ensure that all of America’s communities obtain the advanced communications capabilities they will need to survive and thrive in the increasingly competitive global economy.

The study examines the dangers of government-owned broadband networks and warns that increasing the number of government-operated networks (GONs) would do little to lower their costs or increase broadband subscribership. Specifically, the study highlights the significant historical failures of GONs, and how they have left taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in government debt and forced consumers to pay higher prices for other municipal utility services to make up for operational losses. Key findings:

Decatur (IL) is moving forward with an Institutional Network (I-Net) expansion that will connect 11 school districts and 3 firehouses to its growing fiber-optic backbone, connecting potential commercial and industry customers along the way. The city of Decatur has been expanding its fiber network since 2014.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard starting in 2020, residents of Fairlawn (OH) were well-prepared to work and attend school online, while people living in some of the surrounding towns struggled with slower, less reliable internet service. Fairlawn, a relatively affluent Akron suburb of about 7,500 residents, built its own fiber-based internet service called FairlawnGig in 2017.

Demand for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connectivity across the 4.74-square-mile Vinton, Iowa, community (est. pop.

Wilson (NC) has had city-wide high-speed fiberoptic internet since 2008. “In Wilson, we see high-speed broadband as infrastructure,” said Grant Goings, Wilson City Manager. Everything started in 2006 when Goings spearheaded a municipal broadband project after he said private telecommunications companies would not invest in high-speed internet in their area.

Springfield (MA) took its first step to explore whether it will become the first of New England’s five biggest cities to build a municipal fiber-to-the-home network. City officials are in the process of issuing a Request for Proposals to conduct a feasibility study to explore if Springfield will control its digital future by meeting “the growing demand for reliable and affor

When the local cable company and only universal wireline Internet service in Tuttle (OK) went bankrupt a decade ago, local leaders rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Originally projected to be a five-year project, Tuttle's citywide fiber-to-the-home network was completed in Fall 2020 after just 3 years. The network hit an important milestone shortly after construction was finished: its financial break-even point.

Jamestown plans to construct a citywide municipal fiber network using American Rescue Plan funds, the first city in the state of New York to do so. The city is currently working with EntryPoint Networks on a feasibility study to estimate the overall cost of the project, as well as surveying residential interest in building a municipally owned open-access broadband network in Jamestown. Under the open-access network model Jamestown is pursuing, the city would own and maintain all network infrastructure, which the city would then lease to third-party internet service providers (ISPs) to compe

Some of the Senate infrastructure bill's staunchest supporters say they are frustrated by what wasn’t included in the bill: provisions to encourage municipal broadband — Internet service that is partially or fully owned by local governments. Consumer advocacy and anti-monopoly groups say helping cities build their own Internet services is crucial for expanding connectivity nationwide, and they say it could also dramatically increase competition in areas where only a few major telecommunications companies dominate the market. Locally owned networks, proponents contend, aren’t driven by profi