We’ve noted repeatedly how the U.S. is dominated by regional telecom monopolies like AT&T and Comcast that have spent decades working tirelessly to crush regional broadband competition, and have also spent millions of dollars to crush state and federal regulatory oversight. The result is a patchwork of monopolies that don’t try very hard on availability, price, customer service, and speed.
Increasingly, communities that are left stuck under substandard monopoly access are taking matters into their own hands. Like Michigan residents Samuel Herman and Alexander Baciu, profiled by Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica, who used their expertise in construction to build their own fiber broadband provider:
“All throughout my life pretty much, I’ve had to deal with Xfinity’s bullcrap, them not being able to handle the speeds that we need,” Herman told Ars.”
Now locals can get much faster broadband at much lower prices, which is almost always the case when it comes to locally-owned broadband alternatives. Herman and Baciu’s new provider, PrimeOne, offers locals symmetrical 500Mbps for $75, 1 Gbps for $80, 2Gbps for $95, and 5Gbps for $110. Prices well ahead of what most Americans pay even in major tech-centric cities like Seattle.
Unlike Comcast, there are no pesky usage caps (though Comcast does finally appear to be taking some inconsistent steps back from the practice).
We’ve noted how the frustration with substandard broadband during COVID lock-downs in particular resulted in a massive surge in community-owned networks, whether it’s a cooperative, city-owned utility, municipally-owned network, or public-private partnership between locals and a regional provider.
Locally-owned providers not only statistically offer better, faster, cheaper service, as residents of the communities they’re often more directly accountable when something goes wrong. It’s a trend big ISPs like Comcast obvious don’t like, resulting in all sorts of dodgy behaviors ranging from lawsuits and state bans to the use of fake local consumer groups to try and scare locals away from the idea.
The Trump administration’s approach to U.S. broadband has generally been to destroy what’s left of consumer protection oversight, illegally dismantle laws trying to improve broadband access, and rewrite remaining government programs to the benefit of billionaire benefactor Elon Musk. The GOP has also repeatedly tried to ban communities from building their own broadband networks.
Some states have made community-owned and operated broadband a centerpiece of their broadband efforts, and were poised to use a large chunk of the looming $42.5 billion in federal infrastructure bill broadband grants to help fund this sort of access. But those efforts are also increasingly in question as the Trump NTIA attempts to de-prioritize fiber, and re-prioritize kissing Elon Musk’s ass.