Comcast, CenturyLink Fail to Stop Longmont Fiber City Will be Allowed to Use its Own Fiber Network

For years we've covered how ISPs have used some very sleazy tactics to stop towns or cities from deploying their own broadband. In Lafayette, Louisiana, pollsters there were hired to tell locals that a municipal fiber network meant the government would begin rationing their TV viewing and take away religious TV programming. In Illinois, Comcast and AT&T (then SBC) tried to convince locals that building their own broadband meant they'd be subsidizing porn. In every case, incumbent ISPs have sued, hassled, harassed, and otherwise assaulted these projects -- then insisted they were always destined for failure when the efforts stumble under assault. The real problem, however, is that these projects (good, bad or otherwise) would never have been started if locals were happy with the level of service they were getting from their broadband providers. Instead of improving service though, carriers spent millions on push pollsters, propaganda, and lawsuits. In Longmont, Colorado, locals were tired of sub-par Qwest service and tried to work out a public-private broadband expansion in 2005, but a protectionist law proposed by Qwest prohibited it. Qwest's law required that Longmont pass a referendum to allow local businesses and resident to use a network the town itself built. In 2009 the city put the referendum to a vote -- with 56% of the voters saying no after Comcast and Qwest poured more than a quarter million into attacking the plan. Locals realized they'd been boondoggled, so this year the city tried again. Despite Comcast and CenturyLink spending even more money on the kind of astroturf efforts we've seen time and time again, voters this time voted 60% to approve the plan: Longmont's Ballot Question 2A cruised to victory Tuesday night, carrying about 60 percent of the vote for most of the night. The vote lifts state restrictions on the city's use of its 17-mile-long fiber-optic loop, allowing it to offer services to residents and businesses either directly or through a partner....The city built its 17-mile fiber-optic loop in 1997. The $1.1 million cost was paid for by the Platte River Power Authority. But about two-thirds of it has remained "dark" -- unused -- thanks to a 2005 state law that barred the city from providing retail access to the loop, either directly or through a private partner. Some of these projects succeed, while some of them fail. Many of them fail thanks to ceaseless lawsuits from companies that simply don't want to compete, actions supported by people who amusingly then insist they simply believe in the free market. Again though, these actions would not be taken by towns and cities if there was a functioning and competitive free market. Instead what we've got is a broken duopoly that effectively writes protectionist state and federal laws, while pushing propaganda insisting the market isn't broken. That makes a victory like this one all the more impressive. Unfortunately for Longmont the battle only just begins here. Not only must the city device a working business plan, they've got to do so under constant legal assault by CenturyLink and Comcast. History has clearly illustrated they won't stop attacking the plan -- then when it crumbles under assault they'll insist that all such plans are simply destined to failure. Of course if that really were the case, neither company would be spending hundreds of thousands to make sure.