Still waiting for affordable high-speed internet access? Only the government can help.
The likes of Comcast and Verizon view rural and poor urban areas as unprofitable. The solution? Public broadband.
It’s been well documented that the internet was invented on the public’s dime. As economist Mariana Mazzucato says, “All the most important technologies that have driven growth — what economists call general purpose technologies — trace their funding back to government.”
Then why do 21 million Americans still lack access to high-speed broadband, while over 162 million don’t use the internet at broadband speeds?
To answer that, let‘s look at three very different cities.
First, there’s my hometown, tiny La Plata near the southern tip of Maryland. Many of its residents, including my parents, pay through the nose for slow dial-up or cellular connections or lack internet altogether. That’s because large providers like Comcast and Verizon have left vast swathes of Southern Maryland without broadband infrastructure. As for-profit corporations, it’s simply not profitable for them to invest in rural areas.
Then, there’s Washington, D.C., where I live today. Back in 2006, the nation’s capital built the country’s first 100 Gbps fiber network. Yet, it’s only available to the local government and certain nonprofit institutions. Why? Because of Comcast and Verizon. The District’s franchise agreements with private internet service providers prohibit it from competing with these companies by offering its own public service.
D.C. isn’t alone. Telecom companies spend big on lobbying nationwide to stop communities from building their own internet access. Nineteen states have legislation in place that put up significant barriers to or outright ban public networks.
Meanwhile, thousands of D.C. residents have slow internet or lack access altogether, predominately in the poor areas of town.
Finally, there’s Chattanooga, Tennessee. The city nestled in the Appalachian Mountains has one of the country’s fastest internet connections. It also has the nation’s highest rated internet service provider according to Consumer Reports.
Why? Back in 2009, the city built it’s own government-owned, fiber-based network, despite intense lobbying from Comcast and others. Rates are low and speeds are fast, while companies like Volkswagen flock to town partly because of the internet.
(Nearby Kentucky recently tried a privatized alternative — a so-called “public-private-partnership” — that crashed and burned, leaving the state owing almost $600 million to an Australian financial firm.)
Over 500 local governments across the U.S. have invested in municipal broadband networks in some form. And you guessed it: across the board, publicly owned networks provide consumers with significantly lower rates than their private sector counterparts.
With water pipes corroding from Flint, Michigan, to Newark, New Jersey, and potholes growing in number by the day, it’s easy to forget internet access when taking stock of the country’s many infrastructure needs. But a 21st century America needs public investment in broadband, and lots of it.
As Cat Blake of Next Century Cities writes, “In an age in which the day’s news is read in email inboxes, presidential statements are made on Twitter, and city council meetings are live-streamed, we cannot be satisfied with a system that leaves so many out of political and civil discourse.”
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