Cities Are Fighting States over Municipal Broadband

Wilson, North Carolina, determined nearly a decade ago that high-speed Internet access would be essential to the community’s social and economic health in the 21st century, just as electricity, water and sewers were in the previous 100 years.

Today, Wilson is North Carolina’s first “Gigabit City.”

Its Greenlight broadband utility serves 7,000 of 50,000 residents with Internet speeds between 20 Mbps, or 20 megabits per second, and 1 Gbps, or 1 gigabit per second.

Greenlight also offers electricity to six surrounding counties, but not Internet, cable TV or phone service. Many other small communities without high-speed broadband would like to follow Wilson’s lead, but they have run into resistance from state officials who don’t want municipalities competing with private companies that pay taxes.

States also fear exposing taxpayers to potential losses if systems should fail. In recent years 20 other states either have prohibited municipal broadband or thrown up hurdles making it more difficult for communities to get into the broadband business.