Municipal Broadband

One learning outcome of the past year’s battle with the pandemic is that broadband is essential to the functioning of the country. Many who read this blog are focused on educational issues and understand the role that broadband has played in education and the struggles schools have had with access for all students. Within cities, residents should have access to at least one provider, but in this case the challenge may be cost. There are other issues with providers such as net neutrality with competition not always a solution for those looking for a provider offering different options. There is also the issue of cost and quality with the U.S. lagging behind the connectivity available in other countries.

Biden has proposed a $100 billion plan to all citizens with community broadband playing an important part of the approach. Community (municipal) broadband would not provide help for those in rural areas with limited service, but it would seem a way to offer service in populated areas. The idea of municipal broadband access is that cities could offer community wifi access as a utility. The cost could be part of the benefits of city taxes, through subscriptions, or a combination. Obviously, proposals to provide municipal broadband tend to be opposed by traditional broadband providers who have worked in many localities to block municipal plans through political action.

Many states (22) have significant barriers to municipal broadband. I was surprised to see Minnesota (my state or residence) on this list because I know that some efforts do exist. The article lists Minnesota as facing “competitive barriers” to the development of a municipal option.

Minnesota state laws require municipal governments proposing to offer broadband services to residents to obtain a referendum “supermajority” of 65% of voters to proceed. Municipal governments are able to construct, extend, improve and maintain facilities for Internet access only if the city council finds that proposed broadband network and service will not compete with existing services provided by private telecom companies, or if such services are not and will not be available through private telecom companies in the foreseeable future.

I was able to find this map showing the location of communities with municipal broadband.

The summary of the American Jobs Plan is available from the whitehouse.gov. The section on high speed internet as critical infrastructure is about 1/3 of the way into the document so you will have to search or scroll to find it (Revitalize America’s digital infrastructure).