3 ms·

>They get the municipal governments to sign exclusivity clauses and various other laws to keep competition out. These contracts are signed under duress, then?

• DannyBee 12y ago
  As someone pointed out, these contracts have been illegal for 20+ years. Truthfully, as the great-grandparent said, the muni's did this, and now you want them to build broadband networks? This will require more regulation of those networks when the muni's decide to sell your info to put ads on the connections (or whatever) due to lowering tax revenue, or whatever. Seriously. I love the idea of muni broadband, and there are plenty of municipalities where I think it would go well due to the structure/tenor of those local governments, but i would be vastly afraid of what would happen elsewhere :( After all, most of these government have had no trouble placing things like red light cameras and causing more rear-end accidents for revenue, and take your pick of any 5 harebrained schemes to save the children.