Let Local Networks Deliver Broadband

[Commentary] In the mountains of North Carolina, Verizon, AT&T and Charter control more than 90 percent of the landlines to homes and businesses. Yet local politicians and economic development officials -- and the state's broadband authority -- gave up years ago trying to cajole or bribe the big carriers into deploying broadband to underserved neighborhoods and rural areas. The idea that these carriers might suddenly produce plans for "shovel-ready" broadband projects in our rural mountains is more magical thinking than pragmatic logic. Instead, we are far more likely to find "shovel-ready" projects on the drawing boards of local planning agencies and state broadband initiatives like the NC Rural Internet Access Authority, now known as the e-NC Authority. The danger with tax credits for the big cable and telephone companies is that they can become a bait-and-switch scheme. When some suggest that "a sizeable portion" of any stimulus package should go to these companies to deploy broadband "in areas without it," we see the bait. But then we hear that the tax credits can also be used "to expand speeds in areas with it," and there we see the potential switch. So, why are we trying to bribe the big telephone and cable companies to go where their Wall Street business models have no future? That's a question that advocates for tax credits must answer.