Community broadband networks provide a public service

[Commentary] Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake recently spoke the plain truth: "You can't grow jobs with slow Internet." This simple statement is the best explanation for why Baltimore is examining how it can use existing city assets and smart investments in the near future to expand access to fast, affordable, and reliable Internet access. It is also a slap across Comcast's face.

The big cable and telephone companies have insisted for years that they already deliver the services residents and businesses need. But they also claim to offer reasonable prices that just happen to increase year after year with few customers having other options to choose from. Baltimore's reality is that Comcast does indeed offer speeds that are faster than many those in rural Maryland can access. But they are not even in the same league as cities like Chattanooga (TN), where every address in the community has access to the fastest speeds available anywhere in the nation, and at some of the lowest prices. There, as in hundreds of communities across the country, the local government built its own next-generation network. The overwhelming majority of community owned networks are doing exactly what they intended -- breaking even financially while providing a valuable public service. Big cable companies argue that these networks have failed if they aren't making big profits each year, a misunderstanding of public accounting. Community owned networks aim to break even, not make a profit.