In Orwellian fashion, many of the examples offered as disasters are actually tremendous success stories. Many of the figures used as contemporary evidence against municipal broadband are based on case studies of cable television systems from a report that is seven years old. Even if it were still timely, its conclusions have been thoroughly debunked.
Municipal Broadband: Demystifying Wireless and Fiber-Optic Options
Publication Date:
January 15, 2008 
The United States, creator of the Internet, increasingly lags in access to it. In the absence of a national broadband strategy, many communities have invested in broadband infrastructure, especially wireless broadband, to offer broadband choices to their residents.
Newspaper headlines trumpeting the death of municipal wireless networks ignore the increasing investments by cities in Wi-Fi systems. At the same time, the wireless focus by others diverts resources and action away from building the necessary long term foundation for high speed information: fiber optic networks.
DSL and cable networks cannot offer the speeds required by a city wishing to compete in the digital economy. Business, government, and citizens all need affordable and fast access to information networks.
Today's decisions will lay the foundation of telecommunications infrastructure for decades. Fortunately, we already know the solution: wireless solves the mobility problem; fiber solves the speed and capacity problems; and public ownership offers a network built to benefit the community.
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