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Originally Posted by Young Drachma
I read something earlier about how this might push more cities (where it hasn't been banned by states) to create their own broadband networks locally. That's not a bad thing, but big telco is trying to prevent that from happening where it already hasn't.
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Yeah Google fiber started a small wave of that. The problem with it is the same problem municipalities had in the late 90s early 2000s when many tried the same thing...if they even build a network, they have a hard time keeping up with technology and it quickly becomes insolvent. Especially if taxpayers aren't onboard with the erratic large investments needed, as it isn't just "build it and everything stays the same for years". It literally requires constant upkeep, and very smart people to properly architect it.
Its possible of course, but generally speaking the brightest are going to go work elsewhere since municipalities aren't likely to keep up with the wages they can earn elsewhere.
Edit to add: Its worth noting that this very scenario is the reason many states & municipalities actually have laws against them doing this very thing. Because if the municipality can no longer afford to maintain the erratic & large costs (both people & hardware) they essentially have to get money from the state (to fund contractors...not cheap) to come in & solve their problems. And all the while, the municipality has discouraged private competition from investing so the municipality ends up worse off in just a few years.
Its not a guarantee that every municipal system ends up that way of course. But its a very risky proposition if you have at least 1 semi-reasonable incumbent ISP.