Comments on Municipal Broadband Petitions

The Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) onPetitions Pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for Removal of State Barriers to Broadband Investment and Competition. Read full text of the comments here [pdf]

As the National Broadband Plan notes, “Broadband is the great infrastructure challenge of the early 21^st century.”[1] The Commission should do all it can to encourage innovation around different approaches and different models of broadband deployment.
In the last few years, more and more local governments have been responding to this challenge by investing in their own broadband networks. Local governments exist to serve the needs of their communities. And when a community feels its broadband needs are not being met, it should have the right exercise local choice – to assess its options and respond in a way that it deems most appropriate. The Commission should act on the requests of the Petitioners and preempt the laws that communities cite as being barriers to broadband investment.

Local broadband networks support many of the Commission’s policy goals. Local networks have a clear impact on competition, offering some of the highest speed broadband services available and spurring other providers to respond with improved services of their own. Local networks also offer important quality of life benefits to communities. They provide high-capacity bandwidth resources to meet the needs of community anchor institutions like schools, libraries, and community centers and encourage local economic development. Local broadband networks are developing new models for broadband deployment, and removing state laws that prohibit communities from deploying their own broadband networks will allow more innovation and experiments to occur across the country.

Read full text of the comments here [pdf]