Broadband facts: GON (Government-Owned Networks) with the wind

[Commentary] President Barack Obama has instructed the Federal Communications Commission to overturn laws restricting cities and towns from building and operating networks in 19 states. Should the President instruct an independent agency to do anything? No. And can the FCC overturn these state laws? Probably not, at least not legally.

I think most people wouldn’t object, in the rare case where no broadband provider exists, to a town building its own network. Given the reality that consumers have more than one option for broadband in most areas of the country, and the dismal record of Government-Owned Networks, however, municipal networks should only be a last resort.

[Brett Swanson is the President of Entropy Economics LLC]