Ohio, Vermont showcase successful municipal network financing

Like most internet service providers, municipalities face their fair share of challenges when building broadband networks. Particularly, they need to convince financiers that it’s a worthwhile investment. Securing funds is especially tricky when the incumbents don’t want to play ball. Ernie Staten, Public Service Department Director for the City of Fairlawn, Ohio, said when Fairlawn asked some local internet service providers if they were interested in a partnership to build a citywide network, they basically laughed at the idea. So, Fairlawn decided to finance the network itself, which cost $10.1 million for the outside plant and some small data centers. The city classified broadband just like a road, sewer or water line, so it was able to take funding out of its infrastructure budget to finance the network. Meanwhile in Vermont, community-owned broadband is all the rage thanks to the state’s communications union districts. A CUD is an organization of two or more towns that collaborate to build communications infrastructure.