More and more cities are looking at the prospect of being broadband providers. My instincts are that they will begin providing access to private companies rather than be able to do it themselves. Om has a post about San Francisco and their possible FTTP efforts.
I grew up in Philadelphia and remember the problems with Philadelphia Gas Works, which was set up by the city, but functioned as a quasi-municipal agency on its own. These are places where cronies rule the day and where ineptitude would abound. It was where if you had political juice you stuck your brother in law's kid to get some work experience, only to find out he was still there ten years later collecting a paycheck but doing nothing.
Private enterprise, not municipal government has run these ventures, just like the cable industry. As I look at WiFi and WiMax and now broadband I see government's role as being the lightning rod to attract the players, make it easy for them to do the deployments, provide unfettered access and receive the benefits of what high speed Internet has to offer to their communities.
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