Glenn on municipal broadband

From blogger/freelance writer/author Glenn Fleishmann:

This last week I spent many, many hours talking with people by phone and email, and then writing voluminously about a new report from a set of think tanks that purports to prove that municipal broadband networks--those built and operated by cities and towns--are anti-competitive and wasteful of taxpayers' money.

They make a few valid points in a sea of unfounded assertions and ideological mission statements, such as figuring out how to properly plan, assess, and review plans before they're underway.

The only problem? The co-publisher of the report is a subsidiary of a PR firm that represents incumbent telecommunications and cable firms that have a vested interest in protecting their profits from municipal competition. In every city in which the government builds or plans to build competing services, prices drop.

You can read more than you might want to know about this at Wifinetnews.com.