The wording could be more clear. Written another way: "a public entity may provide telecommunication services within its boundaries after issuing a request fo

The wording could be more clear. Written another way: "a public entity may provide telecommunication services within its boundaries after issuing a request for competitive sealed bids to provide telecommunication services and receiving less than 3 qualified bids from private providers." If you get enough bids, the assumption is that the price is competitive and therefore it's cheaper to use a private company and not have the gov't itself do the infrastructure work.