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Cheap and Fast Municipal ISPs are Blocked in Almost Half of the US

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|| |By18 May 2020, 10 a.m.We review products , but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. .Every year,delves into the world of municipal broadband with a report on which states havemade it illegal for towns and cities and counties to set up their own ISPs, or make it really difficult. &nbsp;The , written by telecom analyst , has a silverlining, though. Since the&nbsp;&nbsp;report,the number of states actively blocking or outlawing municipal broadband hasdropped from 25 to 22. If your state above is in green, start searching now fora municipal provider—or at least for a smaller, faster ISP.Those three states now allowing muni-based internet are Arkansas,California (which actually passed a law in 2018 to stop restrictions), and Connecticut.In addition, seven states now have task forces in place to try to get morebroadband: Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, andWashington.The reason tends to be that lawmakers finally see the gaps inbroadband coverage, and sometimes only locals are in a position to dosomething about it—or they're the only ones who care, since major ISPs don’t want tomove into an area that won't give them more cost benefits.SEE ALSO:By BroadbandNow's count, there arein the US. It knows, because the site exists to help people find internetservice and tracks the pricing. It also found that the states with obstructionon muni networks all have higher-than-average ISP costs, based on pricingfrom Q2 2020. At least 55 percent of the US population with access to wired broadbandlive in states with no muni network roadblocks.The barriers to entry vary from state to state, and somestates have multiple barriers (as indicated in the map above). Some are vague bureaucraticnonsense; some are outright laws against selling local internet access thatisn't from a private telecom (looking at you, Missouri and Nebraska), referendumrequirements that benefit the telecoms, funding barriers. One state—Nevada—putsa weird population cap on which areas can have muni networks. And of course, oneputs such excessive taxes on muni broadband that it's almost impossible to establish; nicegoing, Florida. Several states have multiple roadblocks on the books: Virginia,Wisconsin, and Alabama are the worst offenders.Despite these stumbling blocks, some of these states havemanaged to establish muni networks. Florida actually has two. Tennessee has bureaucraticlimits, but that hasn't stopped from delivering one of the firstand best 1 Gigabit muni fiber networks for customers (it frequently appears inour )—butit can't extend outside itselectric service area.If you're curious for more details, you'll find plenty, plusthe full methodology of how BroadbandNow comes to these conclusions, in .More Inside PCMag.comCommentsPlease enable JavaScript to view the comments.Featured on PCMagBecome a fan of PCMag

|| |By18 May 2020, 10 a.m.We review products , but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. .Every year,delves into the world of municipal broadband with a report on which states havemade it illegal for towns and cities and counties to set up their own ISPs, or make it really difficult. &nbsp;The , written by telecom analyst , has a silverlining, though. Since the&nbsp;&nbsp;report,the number of states actively blocking or outlawing municipal broadband hasdropped from 25 to 22. If your state above is in green, start searching now fora municipal provider—or at least...

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By Eric Griffith

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Cheap and Fast Municipal ISPs are Blocked in Almost Half of the US

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