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https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadblocks/ https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadbloc... (3 May 2021) outlines which stat

https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadblocks/ https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadbloc... (3 May 2021) outlines which states have broadband restrictions. Key quotes: - 18 states have restrictive legislation in place that make establishing community broadband prohibitively difficult. - Five additional states (Iowa, Arkansas, Colorado, Oregon, and Wyoming) have other types of roadblocks in place that make establishing networks more difficult than it needs to be. - A further five states (Arkansas, Idaho, Tennessee, Washington, and Montana) have introduced bills to remove municipal broadband restrictions so far this year. Montana’s bill has failed, while Arkansas’ passed in February.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
With regards to legislation repealing restrictions and enabling muni networks, it’s like marijuana legalization. You keep throwing it on the ballot each election cycle until it sticks from cohort turnover. Some states turn over faster than others.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
kingsuper20 5y ago
Does 'prohibitively difficult' mean that towns aren't allowed to put in networks? or simply that it's hard to get funding from some higher level of government? It's hard to imagine some state law that prohibits a town (or neighborhood for that matter) from building out some kind of internet access.
- smelendez 5y ago
  Those laws absolutely exist. Usually passed by state legislatures who see it as government overreach, encouraged by the big ISPs.
  - kingsuper20 5y ago
    Huh. That's ridiculous. If a city can force everyone to pitch in for a library (cough homeless center), I'd think that running some wires and hooking up some gear would be a no-brainer.
  - xbar 5y ago
    Yeah! And let's ban water, too! And sewers!
- nobody9999 5y ago
  >It's hard to imagine some state law that prohibits a town (or neighborhood for that matter) from building out some kind of internet access. That seems more like a failure of imagination, since ALEC[0] has been writing bills for state legislators to do just that for many years. cf. https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/02/12385/how-alec-helps-big-telecom-change-state-laws-corporate-gain https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/02/12385/how-alec-helps-bi... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_...

toomuchtodo 5y ago

With regards to legislation repealing restrictions and enabling muni networks, it’s like marijuana legalization. You keep throwing it on the ballot each election cycle until it sticks from cohort turnover. Some states turn over faster than others.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

kingsuper20 5y ago

Does 'prohibitively difficult' mean that towns aren't allowed to put in networks? or simply that it's hard to get funding from some higher level of government? It's hard to imagine some state law that prohibits a town (or neighborhood for that matter) from building out some kind of internet access.

smelendez 5y ago
Those laws absolutely exist. Usually passed by state legislatures who see it as government overreach, encouraged by the big ISPs.
- kingsuper20 5y ago
  Huh. That's ridiculous. If a city can force everyone to pitch in for a library (cough homeless center), I'd think that running some wires and hooking up some gear would be a no-brainer.
- xbar 5y ago
  Yeah! And let's ban water, too! And sewers!
nobody9999 5y ago
>It's hard to imagine some state law that prohibits a town (or neighborhood for that matter) from building out some kind of internet access. That seems more like a failure of imagination, since ALEC[0] has been writing bills for state legislators to do just that for many years. cf. https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/02/12385/how-alec-helps-big-telecom-change-state-laws-corporate-gain https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/02/12385/how-alec-helps-bi... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_...