Yes, comcast threw tantrums in city hall on multiple occasions. Longmont's story is rather complicated and interesting. I don't know all the details, but knew

Yes, comcast threw tantrums in city hall on multiple occasions. Longmont's story is rather complicated and interesting. I don't know all the details, but knew a fair number of the key players. Essentially, Longmont allowed an upstart ISP to put cable in the ground. Part of the deal was that if they were going to sell it, Longmont got first right of refusal (or something similar), and when they went under, the city bought the fiber for cheap. They were sitting on dark fiber for a long time, and they leased it out to several companies who failed to make it work. Then, after enough people in the town and city government cared (I'll call out Jim Wall - the town CTO - for being awesome), the vote passed and with some creaking and groaning, the roll-out got started. Residents got 1 Gigabit symmetric for $50 per month (you're reading that correctly). Interestingly, nearly overnight, both Comcast and Charter were offering more than 1 Gb/s for $75ish.