Municipal Broadband is Making Progress

MUNICIPAL BROADBAND IS MAKING PROGRESS
[SOURCE: Telecommunications Online, AUTHOR: Sean Buckley]
The municipal broadband network industry continues to incite great debate and interest. And while the providers may not be household names, the municipal broadband market is not something the large carriers should readily dismiss as a passing fad. Despite continued legal challenges by the large operators that argue that municipal utilities should not be allowed to utilize taxpayer dollars to build such networks, the municipal broadband trend is not going away anytime soon. According to a new report by Pike & Fischer, cable, telcos and other incumbent broadband service providers could eventually see a 48 percent decline in their revenue as a result of competition from city-run broadband networks. “The competitive impacts of municipal broadband will be especially threatening to incumbents to the extent that muni nets can be cost- justified by increased efficiencies, cost savings and other ‘internal’ or social benefits captured by local governments, schools, and other public institutions,” the report states. And while Pike & Fischer admits that the true impact that municipal networks will have on the incumbent network operators will “remain largely speculative, there is a real possibility that even a modest realization of [their potential] could add significantly to Wall Street concerns regarding the financial prospects” of those providers.
http://telecommagazine.com/newsglobe/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_2244