AT&T joins case; Chanute needs state nod to offer fiber broadband, says 1947 law

After beating back a legislative effort to stop them, city leaders in Chanute (KS) now face another state government hurdle in their effort to extend ultra-high-speed fiber broadband to residents’ homes and businesses. Because of a 1947 state law on utilities, the city has to get permission from the Kansas Corporation Commission to sell bonds to fund its fiber-to-home project, which would extend some of the fastest Internet service in the nation to the rural community of about 9,200 people in southeast Kansas. AT&T, one of two lower-speed broadband providers serving Chanute, filed to officially intervene in the case and was granted that permission. In the commission case, Chanute is arguing that the 1947 law was actually designed to protect municipalities from defaulting on bonds because of private-sector competition, not to protect private-sector providers from competition with local government.