Mayors of Boston, Seattle, KC, others: No more muni broadband restrictions, please

A group of 38 mayors and other elected officials from cities like Boston, Seattle, and Kansas City urged the Federal Communications Commission to strike down state laws that restrict the development of public high-speed Internet services and allow municipal networks to flourish.

In an open letter to the FCC commissioners, the Next Century Cities group emphasized the importance of universal access to high-speed Internet services. The ability to make that service generally available, according to Next Century Cities, requires that regulators give local governments a free hand in how they approach the problem -- which includes, for many, the creation of municipal broadband networks.