How the history of electricity explains municipal broadband

With the fight over net neutrality still simmering, the Federal Communications Commission has opened up another front in the battle over the Internet’s future. The agency wants to explore the possibility of helping cities build their own connections to the Internet and bypassing the commercial broadband providers like Verizon and Comcast that have generally served as America’s onramps to the Web. On Monday, the FCC opened up new proceedings for a pair of petitions asking for the government’s help, and as with the net neutrality docket, members of the public can now weigh in on the issue for themselves. Should the FCC try to preempt state laws that block cities from building out publicly owned Internet infrastructure?

By Brian Fung

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/07/29/how-the-history-of-electricity-explains-municipal-broadband/?hpid=z13