Big Savings, New Jobs from Community-Owned Networks

[Commentary] We're all frustrated at rate hikes from phone and cable companies. Every year, it's either an outright increase or some new fee that has the same effect. Now imagine being told that over the next five years, Comcast was going to raise the price of your Internet connection by over 800 percent. That's what the company told Martin County, Fla., a few years ago, aware that the region had few alternatives to turn to. But Martin County recognized the danger in agreeing to extortionary prices and built its own network to connect schools, libraries, police and other community anchor institutions. The project is forecast to save the county $30 million over 20 years. This is one of the many examples we at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance detailed in our fact sheet on the public savings community-owned networks bring.