Muni broadband bad, let me count the ways
Big business-leaning think tank trashes community-funded broadband projects
The Heartland Institute has released a study saying municipal broadband projects are a bad idea. Why? "Broadband services are already available to virtually everyone who wants them," reads one sunny argument.
Yes, well, except for the people who can't get service. Isn't that the point?
The study goes on to say that subsidies to corporations are not productive for economic development. If this is the case of Boeing competing with Airbus, perhaps. But it's not ludicrous to posit that a rural community with dial-up or cable modem access at best will be as compeititve eocnomicially as one with a fiber strand running through town.
There's more sharp reasoning like that if you follow the link. Broadband Reports notes that the Heartland Institute traditionally "leans pro-big-business on issues like regulation, environmental law, and 'smokers rights.'" So it's not a stretch to figure out what side they're on.
Why is this such a hard issue? If a community wants to bring itself into the 21st century, and is willing to pay for it the same way it pays for roads and sewers, why not let it?