The following article was published by Fierce Telecom:
In spite of all the public broadband haters, municipalities will be allowed to vie for money from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Whether they'll win BEAD grants or even bother trying, however, is still anyone's guess.
Municipal networks are popping up all over the country, with over 400 now up and running. In Colorado there are networks in Longmont (NextLight), Fort Collins (Connexion), Loveland (Pulse) and Estes Park (Trailblazer). One of the nation’s first municipal providers, EPB in Chattanooga, Tennessee, estimates that it created a nearly $2.7 billion community benefit during just the first 10 years after its launch. Another municipal service in Utah, UTOPIA, built 448.5 miles of fiber in the state last year.
But all this municipal broadband expansion hasn’t been without growing pains.
The full article is available here.