America Tires Of Big Telecom’s Shit, Driving Boom In Community-Owned Broadband Networks

Broadband

from the I-guess-I'll-do-it-myself dept

For decades, frustrated towns and cities all over the country have responded to telecom market failure by building their own fiber broadband networks. Data routinely shows that not only do these networks provide faster, better, and cheaper service, the networks are generally more accountable to the public — because they’re directly owned and staffed by locals with a vested interest in the community.

Despite relentless industry lobbyist efforts to paint these networks as some kind of socialist boondoggle hellscape, such community ISPs continue to see massive, bipartisan popularity. Case in point: The Institute For Local Self Reliance, which tracks community networks, says they saw a dramatic uptick in such networks after COVID lockdowns highlighted the importance of affordable access.

According to a database of such networks tracked by the organization (disclosure: I’ve worked with the nonprofit researching municipal broadband projects), there are now 450 municipal broadband networks in the U.S. Since January 1, 2021, at least 47 new networks have come online, with dozens in the planning or pre-construction phases. And this may be an undercount given the FCC’s failure to track them all.

There are now more than 400 communities all over the country served by such networks, which can take a variety of forms, whether it’s a local cooperative, a city-owned broadband utility, an extension of the existing city-owned electrical utility, or a direct municipal build. Closer to a thousand if you include local public-private partnerships.

In rural North Dakota, local cooperatives have driven the kind of affordable fiber access many city residents in more populous states still haven’t seen. In Vermont, numerous municipalities have fused to create Communications Utility Districts to deploy affordable fiber to long neglected rural markets. In Tennessee, the city-owned utility in Chattanooga has created one of the most popular ISPs in the nation providing speeds upwards of 25 gigabits per second to local residents.

They all represent local, grass roots’ responses to local market failure caused by often-mindless consolidation, stifled competition, and feckless federal policymakers unwilling to address (or often even acknowledge) the problem of unchecked monopoly power. ILSR’s Chris Mitchell put it this way:

“The monopoly cable and telephone companies frequently claim that there are no problems with broadband in the U.S., even as millions of students cannot access the Internet from their homes, whether in rural or urban areas. These cities remind us of the work that has to be done to make sure everyone can take advantage of modern technologies.”

During peak pandemic lockdowns, a viral photo made the rounds featuring poor kids forced to huddle in the dirt outside of Taco Bell, just to attend class. As somebody who has covered U.S. broadband policy for decades, I watched as that photo did more to move the needle on U.S. telecom policy and broadband affordability than any activism campaign or press release crafted in the last quarter century.

Many of these municipalities have been greatly buoyed by billions in both COVID relief money (The American Rescue Plan Act) and infrastructure funding (The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). As a result, countless communities are now deploying cutting edge, affordable, gigabit-capable fiber networks for the first time to customers long trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide.

It’s a movement that could have been pre-empted at any time by the likes of Comcast and AT&T if they’d been willing to expand service, improve speeds, and compete on price. Instead, such companies quickly got to work trying to pass anti-democratic state laws banning such networks, spreading disinformation via fake consumer groups, or flinging lawsuits at towns and cities across America.

Even during the peak of the pandemic, when such networks were busy showcasing their benefit to affordable access for telecommuting and home education, the telecom lobby convinced House Republicans to try and ban such networks nationwide. It didn’t work, again, because nearly everybody in America dislikes Comcast, and these locally owned alternatives have significant, bipartisan support.

Our collective disdain for the local cable and broadband monopoly is one of the few things that bridges America’s ugly (and intentionally well cultivated) partisan divide. And this kind of local activism is going to be increasingly important as corporate efforts at the Supreme Court to unravel what’s left of federal corporate oversight gain steam in the months and years to come.

None of this is to say community broadband is a magic panacea. Such efforts require competent leadership, a good plan, plenty of money, and public support. But it is a very cool example — 100 years after a similar backlash played out with rural electrification — of locals banding together to combat regional monopolies (and the corruption that protects them) to dramatically improve their quality of life.

Filed Under: broadband, community broadband, digital divide, gigabit fiber, high speed internet, monopoly, telecom
Companies: institute for local self reliance