The Battle Is Raging for Control of the Internet -- and Big Corporations May Come Out on the Losing Side

[Commentary] A battle is raging for control of the Internet and it is not taking place in Washington. Scores of cities, fed up with the recalcitrance and outright arrogance of their providers and Washington's lack of action are taking their information future into their own hands by building their own high-speed networks.

The vast majority of cities with municipally owned networks didn't want to get into the telecommunications business. But after being spurned by the private sector they built their own networks and have found that a public network has many advantages. Ownership allows communities to establish the rules that will play a large part in determining their economic futures. The success of these public networks has spurred the interest of hundreds of communities big and small, and the implacable opposition of the telecommunication companies that now monopolize the Internet's future.