[1st-mile-nm] Should Denver city government enter the internet business to compete with Comcast

[Andrew Cohill]

> On Aug 2, 2020, at 9:49 AM, Steve Ross <editorsteve at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> My data from every USA county shows that when municipalities can threaten to build, carriers fall into line and improve service. 
> 
> I might add that no carrier has ever disputed the data.

We have joked for a long time that the best way to get the incumbents to cut prices and to improve service is to announce a study on muni broadband.

It’s happened so often to our muni clients that it has become a truism: “Hire us and watch prices fall.”

In one study, I was in the city doing the kick off meeting in the morning, and later that day, the incumbent phone company, which had for years wanted enormous fees to connect local businesses to their local fiber network, called the City and told them that they were, effective immediately, waiving all construction charges for new connections.

I can’t find the original article, but I remember that Lafayette, Louisiana actually calculated how much residents saved on incumbent Internet charges once the City started competing with fiber.  It was tens of millions of dollars.

Andrew


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Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D.
President
Design Nine, Inc.


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