Eastern Idaho is in the midst of a fiber-optic revolution. What’s the secret to success?

In eastern Idaho, two relatively small towns, Idaho Falls (population 62,000) and Ammon (16,000) have begun treating broadband as an essential service. These fairly conservative communities offer residents access to lightning-fast internet at low cost. They rely on variations of the same theme to achieve these results: public network ownership. It’s a model that’s gaining steam nationwide, with Detroit (MI) set to begin construction on a $10 million network explicitly modeled after the one engineered in tiny Ammon. In most places, residents have at most one option for fiber internet — the service provider that built and owns the fiberoptic cable in their neighborhood. But using “open access network” models in place in much of Ammon and Idaho Falls, the fiber-optic lines are publicly owned, and internet service providers compete for customers across them. Instead of the market developing along the lines of cable TV, it’s developing more like the market in shipping, where UPS, FedEx and the US Postal Service compete for customers while delivering their services using publicly owned roads. There are no contracts, so dissatisfied customers can switch providers in minutes. The competition drives down prices — way down. The average Ammon customer pays less than $30 per month for a true 1-gigabit connection.

[Bryan Clark is an Idaho Statesman opinion writer based in eastern Idaho.]