Page 1 of 41 Local Government Broadband Initiatives

The future for Internet access is broadband. Federal and state policymakers are exploring initiatives to promote the deployment and adoption of broadband services, and in recent years, an increasing number of local governments have joined them. While the first generation of narrowband dial-up access was able to piggyback on the near universal availability of the mature telephone network, broadband relies on communications infrastructure that is both more heterogeneous and less evenly distributed. These local infrastructure differences suggest a greater role for local communities in affecting how next generation access will evolve. A few case studies of local government broadband initiatives exist, but there is little systematic data or research categorizing the range of activity or assessing the effectiveness of these efforts. This paper represents a first step in an ongoing research effort to better understand the factors that influence a community’s decision to act, its choice of what to do, and the effectiveness of its actions. In recognition of the diversity of initiatives observed, the paper presents a taxonomy to classify the range of policies that local governments are adopting, according to four roles of government vis a vis broadband: as user, rule-maker, financier, and infrastructure provider. After discussing examples of each type of initiative within the taxonomy, the paper analyzes a sample of communities with municipal electric utilities (M.E.U.s).2. From a match of the sample of M.E.U