Greed, Lies And Deception Against Muni Broadband

from the how-it-all-works dept

Picking up on a common theme over there, Broadband Reports has a longer article looking at some of the misleading tactics used by DSL and cable providers to try to stop municipalities from offering broadband. This usually involves push polls (polls designed to push an opinion, rather than actually get a poll), misleading claims and "independent" research that is anything but independent. The DSL and cable guys obviously don't want the competition, and resort to misleading tricks to get residents on their side. The problem is that if the cable and DSL providers actually provided what people wanted there wouldn't be any demand for muni broadband. So, rather than spending all this money on deceiving people, they might as well put it towards improving their offerings. The reality, however, is that many of these providers realize they have a monopoly (or oligopoly) position in these places, and provide the lowest level of service they can get away with. The muni offerings are designed to provide more for residents, while providing more real competition for the other providers. Certainly, there are examples of poorly planned out and poorly run muni broadband operations, but there are also plenty of examples of such operations that have done just what they set out to do: provide better services to residents while boosting the local economy.

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