The government is helping Big Telecom squeeze out city-run broadband

In Ammon, Idaho, every home has access to a fiber optic connection with 1 gigabit per second download and upload speeds. It costs roughly $30 per month. And it’s not controlled by a single big company. Nine different providers can offer you that connection. If you wanted, each of the four ethernet ports in your home gateway could deliver service from a different broadband provider. It’s all thanks to one simple idea picking up steam in pockets of the US: the internet should be treated like a public street. That means providers have to compete, unlike many parts of the US where people are lucky to have even two real choices of providers and subsequently pay some of the highest rates in the world. However, the US is about to deploy $41.6 billion to expand high-speed internet access across all 50 states and every major US territory through a program called Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD). It’s the largest public investment in US broadband ever, and the Comcasts of the country will try their damndest to make sure that public money winds up in private hands. But in many states, the fight will be over before it even begins — because of lobbyists. Over the past three decades, hundreds of US cities and towns have tried to launch municipal broadband services in one form or another. But the deck has always been stacked in favor of incumbents.