NB: This isn't meant to refute your point, as it's contrasting against a totally different competitor (large, corporate monopoly, nothing like market forces) an

NB: This isn't meant to refute your point, as it's contrasting against a totally different competitor (large, corporate monopoly, nothing like market forces) and not necessarily providing free/subsidized service, but I've always found it surprising. At least in Northern California, municipal utilities, seem to be quite competent. Notably, in the SFBA, Santa Clara and Palo Alto have lower rates [1] and better service than what PG&E offers in all the surrounding communities. Santa Clara even built its own modern, local, efficient generating facilities. I also heard from my telecom friends who grew up in more rural Northern California that there were towns (and surrounding rural areas) who ended up building and operating their own phone systems and that call quality (due to engineering/maintenance), features, and cost were always better than a neighboring community's service from AT&T or GTE, until, inevitably, it was privatized and sold off. [1] Palo Alto's electric rates haven't been so great post-Enron, but still better than PG&E AFAIK.