With Minnesota repeal, number of states restricting public broadband falls to 16.

With Minnesota repeal, number of states restricting public broadband falls to 16.

  • Billiam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    94·
    6 months ago

    Wait, a system where the government provides a service subsidized by taxes, and where if the citizens don’t like it they can get a private option, and the existence of the government option would force the private options to be innovative and competitive if they wanted to continue existing?

    Man, what a healthy approach to industry. I wonder in what other ways we could carefully apply this method?

    • Brkdncr@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      33·
      6 months ago

      I’ve always thought that local gov should be able to provide a baseline level of access to the internet, with commercial vendors bringing services and value above that baseline. Sadly our elected representatives were convinced otherwise. I’m glad to see movement in the right direction though.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    7·
    6 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Minnesota this week eliminated two laws that made it harder for cities and towns to build their own broadband networks.

    But the list has gotten smaller in recent years because states including Arkansas, Colorado, and Washington repealed laws that hindered municipal broadband.

    The Minnesota bill enacted this week struck down a requirement that municipal telecommunications networks be approved in an election with 65 percent of the vote.

    The caveat that prevented municipalities from competing against private providers was eliminated from the law when this week’s omnibus bill was passed.

    As a result, the law now lets cities and towns “improve, construct, extend, and maintain facilities for Internet access and other communications purposes” even if private ISPs already offer service.

    With Minnesota having repealed its anti-municipal broadband laws, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance says that 16 states still restrict the building of municipal networks.

    The original article contains 558 words, the summary contains 143 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!