Information Articles and Commentaries

People hate their telecommunications companies. The poster child for poor customer service in the public sector may be the Department of Motor Vehicle Bureau, but its unresponsiveness and arrogance pales into insignificance to those of Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and AT&T.

In this article, David Morris and Christopher Mitchell discuss why public ownership beats private in broadband -- which is why the big companies are trying to outlaw it. More

Who should decide the future of broadband access in towns across North Carolina? Citizens and businesses in towns across the state, or a handful of large cable and phone companies? The new General Assembly will almost certainly be asked to address that question.

With the fastest and most affordable networks in North Carolina being owned by the public, the answer is obvious.  More

In the beginning, there was the post office. Before the Internet, before cable, before TV, before radio, mail delivery was our major means of mass communication. The founders of the United States understood its importance and deemed that it must be a public institution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 7, of the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall have Power to establish Post Offices and Post Roads.”

Congress wanted the U.S. Post Office to be a monopoly, but the Post Office still had to deal with private companies that found loopholes in these rules. More

A battle is raging for control of the Internet and it is not taking place in Washington. Scores of cities, fed up with the recalcitrance and outright arrogance of their providers and Washington’s lack of action are taking their information future into their own hands by building their own high-speed networks. To Harold DePriest, head of Chattanooga’s municipally owned fiber network, currently the largest in the country, the issue is clear: “Does our community control our own fate or does someone else control it?” More

The vast majority of Minnesotans, like the rest of the country, are served by only two broadband suppliers:  the cable or telephone company. These companies generally want to maintain their monopolies because they can postpone upgrades while keeping prices and profits high.  Just about everyone else just wants a better choice among providers.

Here in Minnesota, Monticello has broken the mold with a smart investment in a publicly owned network. More

Community-owned broadband is one way to bring fiber to smaller markets, but many states restrict the practice. Researcher Christopher Mitchell argues that it's time for a bit more Roosevelt-style localism in US broadband. 

Following ILSR's map showing states that preempt local authority to build Community Broadband Networks we published the following op-ed on the leading tech site Ars Technica. More

Current providers won't encourage the competition necessary to improve service and cut costs.

Last January, as the economy spiraled downward, Time Warner did what no other company could have gotten away with under the circumstances: It imposed a price increase of as much as 5.5 percent on its Maine customers.

Meanwhile, the state's other major broadband Internet provider, FairPoint, has amassed a stunning track record of mismanagement and abysmal customer service. More

Just as railroads and highways were the essential infrastructure for development in the 19th and 20th centuries, broadband networks will be essential for 21st-century competitive economies. Small cities and even isolated, rural communities that have strong educational systems and human talent will be able to compete in the new global information economy.

West Virginia's beautiful mountains and valleys, coupled with low density make most of the state an unattractive investment for private phone and cable companies. Fortunately, no community has to be left behind, each can seize the future with smart public investments.

This should not come as a surprise. Local and state governments built our roads. Thousands of rural communities gained access to electricity through publicly owned networks. More

Come Tuesday, North St. Paul residents have the opportunity to become the first metro-area community with a nextgeneration network connecting every home and business. This network will offer a unique experience in the Twin Cities, an advanced broadband network similar to what tens of millions use on a daily basis across the rest of the developed world.

North St. Paul has asked its citizens to approve $18.5 million in bonds to build a fiber-to-the-home network called PolarNet. Bonds will be repaid by the revenue from citizens subscribing to phone, television, and its blazing fast Internet connection provided by an established company based in Minnesota. More

Fiber-to-the-home is essential infrastructure.  Communities know they need better broadband networks.  DSL is already too slow, especially on the upload side.  DOCSIS3 cable networks may promise fast speeds this year and next, but ever increasing numbers of users, each inevitably increasing bandwidth utilization, will soon overwhelm this legacy shared architecture.  

Our international competitors have invested in technologies that will bring very fast speeds all the way to the home.  In most areas of the U.S., this can only be achieved with fiber to the home.  And we can connect a fiber to every home if we make it a priority.  Our geography gives us a bigger challenge than others, but we are a nation that rises to challenges. More