Yomura says it can help struggling municipal fiber broadband providers

Yomura, a UK-based wholesale fiber services provider for Europe and North America service providers, sees an opportunity to help struggling US municipal broadband providers. “In some cases, there are municipalities that have built a network and they are hemorrhaging,” said Owen Stephens, marketing director for Yomura. “These are the sort of networks we want to talk to and we believe we can turn a profit for them.” The question is how Yomura can help US-based municipal providers get around legal and financial challenges. Municipal broadband continues to be a controversial issue with communities trying to take their own service destiny into their own hands while powerful ISPs argue that public funds should not be used to fund competitors.