Government Broadband Costs Consumers 5 Times As Much As Private
July 19, 2016
How much do government-owned broadband networks (GONs) cost taxpayers? As the American Action Forum’s “Daily Dish” reminded us today: a lot. And a lot in comparison to what private networks cost to build. Today’s “Dish” notes, “Google was able build its fiber broadband network at a cost of $564 per household in Kansas City, compared …
Lawmakers Urge FCC Chairman To Rethink His Position on GON’s
June 13, 2014
A group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday sent a letter to Federal Communications Chairman Tom Wheeler asking him, as the Coalition for the New Economy has done, to rethink his position on government-owned broadband. (As a reminder, Chairman Wheeler wants to use FCC authority to overturn state laws that require GONs …
Low Subscribership, Wasted Tax Dollars Plagued GON’s
May 8, 2014
Low subscribership. It’s a problem that has plagued many government-owned broadband networks (GONs), including those in Utah, North Carolina and Vermont, have faced. Whether it’s because GON supporters inflate the likely number of subscribers in order to get local lawmakers on board with municipal broadband or because these networks fail to live up to what …
Google Expanding Its Ultra-Fast Fiber Network to Major Cities
February 24, 2014
Last week Google announced it may expand its ultra-fast fiber service to 34 more cities in the United States. (Google currently offers this service – or is planned to start it soon – in three cities, Austin, Kansas City and Provo. The Wall Street Journal notes it costs just $70 per month.) Among the cities …
GON’s Hurting, Not Helping Broadband Competition
February 18, 2014
“Governments do not ‘compete’ with companies. Governments tax, limit, police and judge companies.” – Scott Cleland, NetCompetition chairman and former Deputy U.S. Coordinator for International Communications & Information Policy For the past few years “competition” is exactly how the Coalition for the New Economy has described government-owned broadband networks (GONs) – see our op-ed from …
North Florida Broadband Authority Now Seeking Private Sector Bailout
September 30, 2013
A couple updates on two government-owned networks we’ve written about before. First, according to The Gainesville Sun, the 15-county North Florida Broadband Authority has added “few new paying customers” since March and is now seeking a bailout from a private company. The newspaper writes, NFBA leaders are “negotiating with a private company to operate and …
The Truth Behind Why Not All Americans Are Online
September 26, 2013
While most Americans live in an area where broadband is available, far fewer actually subscribe to (or adopt) the service. Why? There are many reasons these Americans choose to opt out. Government-owned network supporters, of course, like to focus on three things mainly: 1) the very number of households that don’t even have access (that …
The Real Truth on Chattanooga’s GON
September 18, 2013
The Washington Post reported yesterday, “They may not realize it, but starting today, some high-end Internet subscribers in Chattanooga, Tenn. [to the city’s government-owned network], will turn on their computers and start browsing the Web at a gigabit per second — 10 times the speeds they’re used to.” If you read that sentence too fast you’ll …
Robust Competition is Key For Broadband Services in Rural America
August 7, 2013
A news story recently in the Freeport, Ill. Journal-Standard highlights why it is so important to preserve robust competition for broadband services. The newspaper mentions a report from the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, which found rural Illini pay more for broadband service than their urban counterparts. According to the Journal-Standard, “Residents in parts of …
Assessing how much broadband consumers REALLY need – or want
February 21, 2013
Bret Swanson, a Forbes contributor, had an interesting piece on the magazine’s website last week that attempts to answer this question: how much broadband do most consumers need – or want? Swanson’s question concerns speeds, not access, and is worth contemplating as lawmakers debate pouring hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into super high-speed, gigabit …
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