Picking a Good Steward

The hardest question I get asked by counties and cities is how to know if they can trust an ISP to fulfill its promises. I suggest a series of questions that makes them dig deeper into the real nature of a given ISP and why they want the local funding.

• Does the ISP do a good job today in other markets? 
• Will the ISP you partner with today still be around in a decade? 
• Is the ISP trying to grow too quickly? 
• Where does the money come from? When you partner with somebody like this, are you really partnering with the ISP with the known name or with a venture capitalist hidden in the background?
• Are you being offered a too-good deal? Is the ISP dangling money to a community to cover for other weaknesses? 
• Can I trust an ISP who has done a lousy job for many years but now swears they are different?