Jonathan Feldman's "The State of Broadband," in a July Information Week cover story, is a breath of fresh air. Too often, these articles are written by someone with little background who extrapolates after discussions with the PR wing of several big companies. But Feldman has a keen grasp of reality and is aware of the many communities that offer far better services than the big companies like Comcast and AT&T.

The state of broadband matters to your organization. There's been considerable consumer interest over the past several years, culminating in an FCC plan announced earlier this year to expand broadband coverage and speeds and promote competition. IT organizations can benefit by staying in touch with those regulatory issues, as well as taking advantage of new technology trends, such as wireless broadband, and partnering with alternative providers and municipal networks that buck the status quo. There are clearly risks in doing so, but taking no action almost guarantees that enterprise IT, with pockets of presence in rural and other nonurban areas, will continue to be held back by low-capacity, high-expense networks.

I was even more impressed when I came upon a chart showing "selected rates for business Internet service for small and home offices." As would be expected, it showed Verizon FiOS, AT&T, Charter, and Comcast. But to give a sense of what is possible outside these major carriers, it showed LUS (community fiber network in Lafayette, LA) Fiber prices -- which completely blew away options from the major carriers. There was nothing even close.

He also notes Chattanooga's impressive 150Mbps tier -- which, as I often hasten to note, is not to suggest that community fiber networks are only successful if they can offer such impressive speeds. Chattanooga has access to bigger pipes at lower prices to connect to the Internet than most communities. And they are certainly taking advantage of that local situation!

My only quibble with the article lies with the assertion that competition is on the way for most of us. I think competition is on the way for very few of us, absent community investment. And with community networks come a host of added benefits - which is why so many communities are considering it.