Thu, Apr 15th 2021 6:32am
Karl Bode
For years a growing number of US towns and cities have been forced into the broadband business thanks to US telecom market failure. Frustrated by high prices, lack of competition, spotty coverage, and terrible customer service, some 750 US towns and cities have explored some kind of community broadband option. And while the telecom industry routinely likes to insist these efforts always end in disaster, that s never actually been true. While there certainly are bad business plans and bad leaders, studies routinely show that such services not only see the kind of customer satisfaction scores that are alien to large private ISPs, they frequently offer better, faster service at lower, more transparent pricing than many dominant broadband providers.
January 28, 2021 at 5:52 pm
Third grade teacher Cara Denison speaks with students virtually while live streaming her class via Google Meet at Rogers International School on Nov. 19, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Do you hate your internet provider? Or maybe you’re one of many people who only have one option to choose from? So here’s a question for you: How would you feel about a government option for your internet? Representative Drew Hansen of Kitsap County is the sponsor of a new bill in Olympia that would allow local government to offer broadband internet.
“We have a lot of people in this state who just either don’t have high speed internet access at all, or they have it and it’s expensive, and it’s not very good,” Hansen explained. “We had a hearing yesterday on this bill, and we heard people from all over the state, like a mom in the Spokane Valley who has a special needs kid who, you know, she’s got to