For now, I want to direct you to an excellent study at the MuniNetworks.org site titled “Breaking the Broadband Monopoly.” I haven’t even read it all yet, so I’m copying the official press release here. Be sure to download it and read it for yourself at the original page.

Press Release

Publicly Owned Networks Spur Competition And Offer Fastest Speeds at Lowest Prices, Says New Report

“Publicly owned fiber networks have proven globally competitive – they offer the single best hope for communities that need to stay competitive in the digital age,” says Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) Telecommunications as Commons Initiative and author of a newly released ILSR report Breaking the Broadband Monopoly.

The comprehensive study offers details on many successful publicly owned broadband networks and draws lessons from their experience.

Lafayette, Louisiana, and Monticello, Minnesota, the report notes, built citywide fiber-to-the-home networks offering a symmetrical 10 Mbps (million bits per second) package for less than $30/month. These packages offer the best broadband value of any connection in the U.S.

The report explores the ways publicly owned networks have created true competition for citizens by breaking the stranglehold of cable and telephone oligopolies. As Mitchell, a national expert on community networks says, “Public ownership offers the only realistic option communities have to create competition in broadband services. Communities with these networks pay lower prices and have faster services.”

“Breaking the Broadband Monopoly” is the most comprehensive and up-to-date report on public ownership, combining case studies and a discussion of lessons learned with an in-depth analysis of the many obstacles to public ownership created by state and federal policies.

“That so many barriers to public ownership exist is sobering,” says Mitchell. “But it is uplifting to see the growing number of communities who are overcoming these hurdles and establishing the most impressive broadband networks in the country.” The report is available as a free download.

About ILSR and the New Rules Project:

Since 1974, ILSR has worked with citizen groups, governments and private businesses in developing practices that extract the maximum value from local resources. A program of ILSR, the New Rules Project focuses on local, state and national policies that enable that goal.

• Breaking the Broadband Monopoly Report

Now that we know our own FCC isn’t going to help us out of the broadband mess in America, that their past policies helped to create, we have to figure out a way to help ourselves out. One small helpful aspect of the National Broadband Plan is an admonition to Congress that they support schemes to run high-speed fiber to anchor institutions like schools, hospitals, and libraries nationwide. These institutions can then act like central office hubs for neighborhood networks, sharing their fast connections with the entire community, and gaining maintenance fee help from the connected community. The FCC describes no specific action, but hopefully it will inspire Congress to stop the parliamentary games and electioneering, and actually get something done this year. Barring federal aid, local organizations like NELA-ISC can help these institutions install and maintain these networks, in return for open access to distribute connections to neighboring members.

As it turns out, provisions in the Broadband portion of the 2009 Recovery Act already have some of the same goals. Applications taken by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) for round two of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) are now closed, yet no “Anchor Institution” registrants in the North East Los Angeles region can be found in the BroadbandMatch database.

To be fair, I just found out about these grant resources recently myself — not nearly in time to get any grant application paperwork together. Is it possible that the Recovery Act administrators have not taken any steps to inform our local institutions of their eligibility, at the same time rich incumbents like Qwest are already begging them for more funding? I fear that is exactly what happened. To be honest, the number of applicants to these programs, and to experiments like Google Fiber for Communities, make the odds of being selected seem quite low. With the massive amount of lobbying in Washington D.C., it never feels like small communities like ours will be heard through all the noise.

Regardless of how big the challenge seems right now, we know we have to work together to be heard. I will be talking to the ERNC April 6th, 2010, about local resources and fostering greater cross-institution collaboration. In addition to our excellent Land Use Committee, I will recommend and volunteer myself for the formation of a local Technology Infrastructure Committee. I will be looking for all interested Eagle Rock Stakeholders to join this committee, to share any personal technical expertise with the community at large. Depending on the success of this effort, I may end up encouraging similar committees to be formed in all the Neighborhood Councils within the Northeast Los Angeles region.