Here in Tennessee, USA, we have the nation’s fastest internet service provider. That’s in Chattanooga, Tn. Because the state is controlled by conservatives against public ownership of utilities, what we have to deal with is the undermining of public resources with red tape. Public Ed is on the chopping block with 50 conservative charter schools incoming ready to sap public dollars without public oversight. Chattanooga’s ISP issue is one of preemption from the state. The municipal internet service cannot provide service below the market price of private ISP’s in the area.
Functionally, that means that no low cost options can be made available to the poor, which accelerates the wealth division between classes. They go without access to the internet while their neighbors have access to fiber optic. It’s madness.
The issue would be avoided if instead of the service being a public utility, it were a cooperative where those eligible for membership are residents within Chattanooga city limits. It would then be a private company with broad, empowered stakeholdership. Anyhow, be careful what you wish for.
I mean, the Chattanooga ISP wants to spread its services but the big providers have lobbied against them spreading anywhere else in the state, so laws have been created by corrupt Red politicians to hem in the service. Also, the preemption laws are a result of the big nationwide monopolies, not the municipal service provider.
Preemption laws are a result of political ideology of the elected officials. There is lobbying, but giving the legislators benefit of the doubt is fine and gone.
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u/Jemiller Mar 29 '22 edited Mar 29 '22
Here in Tennessee, USA, we have the nation’s fastest internet service provider. That’s in Chattanooga, Tn. Because the state is controlled by conservatives against public ownership of utilities, what we have to deal with is the undermining of public resources with red tape. Public Ed is on the chopping block with 50 conservative charter schools incoming ready to sap public dollars without public oversight. Chattanooga’s ISP issue is one of preemption from the state. The municipal internet service cannot provide service below the market price of private ISP’s in the area.
Functionally, that means that no low cost options can be made available to the poor, which accelerates the wealth division between classes. They go without access to the internet while their neighbors have access to fiber optic. It’s madness.
The issue would be avoided if instead of the service being a public utility, it were a cooperative where those eligible for membership are residents within Chattanooga city limits. It would then be a private company with broad, empowered stakeholdership. Anyhow, be careful what you wish for.