Municipal Networks

A new lawsuit from fiber operator Metronet accuses officials from the City of Colorado Springs of blocking the company's fiber network construction efforts in the city. The reason? The city's utility is building its own, rival fiber network.

The expansion of broadband in the United States is at a critical inflection point.

Community-owned broadband networks are thriving across the country. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Community Network Map shows a record 795 public networks delivering fast, affordable and reliable internet—hardly the “magical thinking” Annette Meeks described in her recent commentary in the Minnesota Star Tribune on the Connect Willmar Initiative.

An open-access fiber network is installed by a company that then sells access to internet service providers. That means you can have multiple providers offering plans for your house. They use the same infrastructure but may have different prices, services and bundles. You’ll find two types of open-access networks in the US. Municipally-owned networks are owned by cities. Private companies own commercial networks. They both work in a similar fashion, usually with multiple ISPs competing for customers. 

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.

The State of New York recently awarded $140 million in grants to support publicly-owned open-access networks.

According to data from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), there are now more than 400 public broadband networks in the US, serving over 700 communities. Moreover, several (but not all) communities have prevailed in recent years at changing existing state laws preventing the launch of public broadband networks, including most recently Colorado and Minnesota.

The Internet Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) claims public broadband providers get advantages that private players don’t and that they aren’t as efficient in building networks. Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), said ITIF’s paper hides under the rug that private internet service providers have received billions from federal and state sources, including the Universal Service Fund, the Affordable Connectivity Program, and soon from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Meanwhile, the advantages public netwo

Local government officials are often taken in by the allure of government-owned broadband networks (GONs) when told by activists or consultants that they are superior to relying on private providers. While a GON could be the least bad option if no private providers are willing to invest, build, and operate, GONs are typically a suboptimal choice. Comparisons between GONs and private Internet service providers (ISPs) are often asymmetric—overlooking favoritism toward GONs and hostility to private deployment.

RightFiber, a brand of Ritter Communications, agreed in principle to acquire the City of Ruston’s fiber optic broadband network in Louisiana. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. RightFiber will continue serving existing business customers at that time. Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker said, “RightFiber’s personal approach and future-minded vision set them apart as a service provider.