Broadband Myths: Does Municipal Broadband Scale Well to Fit U.S. Broadband Needs?

The Biden administration has proposed a preference for federal funding of broadband infrastructure provided by municipal or nonprofit operators, thrusting municipal ownership of broadband facilities back into the center of telecommunications policy debates. Any federal broadband infrastructure subsidies should be awarded on an “ownership neutral” basis, neither favoring nor penalizing government-provided broadband systems.

Municipal broadband does not scale well to serve the country, but should be an available option for connecting areas private firms would otherwise leave genuinely unserved despite infrastructure subsidies—generally small, widely dispersed towns where private provision is unsustainable even after the initial subsidized infrastructure deployment.