Does the US government really want to get into the broadband business?

[Commentary] The White House isn’t really expecting municipal Internet to make a major dent the market share of existing cable providers. As with the short-lived “public option” for health insurance before it was cut from President Barack Obama’s health care proposal, the idea here -- and on a much smaller scale -- is to hold telecoms’ feet to the fire by providing a baseline level of service. And the cable industry’s unease suggests that this would be the exact result. While government-run networks might not be the ultimate solution to providing better broadband service, it’s worth seeing if open access to publicly-financed local networks can be.