Federal Intrusion on State Laws Regarding Municipal Broadband

This week Digital Liberty wrote a letter to Senators regarding FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler’s support of federal intrusion into sovereign state municipal broadband regulation.

It is unconstitutional to think that the FCC has the authority to regulate how states control individual local governments in regards to their municipal broadband. The problem with municipal broadband right now is that they are subsidized by the taxpayer and are run poorly. These municipal broadband companies do not face market consequences and are constantly in need of a taxpayer bailout. This greatly hinders innovation by allowing the FCC to determine how states should operate.

There are examples of market failure already with municipal broadband and having the FCC force it will continue to hurt the taxpayer both financial and by not allowing them to achieve the technological infrastructure that they need.

To read more about this problem, click here to read the letter recently written to members of the Senate.