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Christopher Mitchell, director of community broadband networks for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, told Vice that these votes are instructive. “I think the margin in Chicago and Denver is remarkable,” Mitchell said. “When we work with communities where half the residents have a cable monopoly and the other half don’t have any broadband, the demand for something better is strong among both populations.” Mitchell’s group says that 83 million Americans live in an area subject to a broadband monopoly, with Comcast being the usual culprit. That’s on top of the estimated 42 million who have no broadband access at all and the tens of millions who only have two choices, where again Comcast dominates. “For years, we have said this is a major concern for voters but local leaders remain too intimidated by the big monopoly cable and telephone companies to act on it,” Mitchell said. “Maybe now we will see it taken more seriously.”
This could be the tipping point, though in 22 states it will require repealing those ALEC-inspired municipal broadband bans. It can happen—two years ago 25 states had the bans. According to a Broadband Now study, consumers in states without those bans “against municipal broadband have, on average, 10% greater access to low-price broadband (which we classify as any standalone internet plan $60 per month or less).”
Arkansas and Connecticut have lifted restrictions on municipal broadband, and Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington State have taken recent legislative action that’s municipal broadband-friendly. Breaking big telecom’s very expensive stranglehold on the country is possible, and a smart thing to start getting on local ballots.
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