SH op-ed: South Mississippi cities deserve better than government broadband

FORUM | South Mississippi cities deserve better than government broadband

While broadband service is an important tool for students, business owners, job seekers, public safety and health care professionals, spending the BP settlement money on a network owned and managed by the cities is a waste of public funds and puts taxpayers on the hook for future financial exposure. And it is hard to imagine that residents in Biloxi will tolerate the delays the Fiber Ring installation will cause in the current infrastructure projects on the Point.

Consumers in this region already have access to broadband service from private Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In fact, 97 percent of Harrison County has access to broadband service that provides download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second, an impressive speed.

Proponents of the government-owned broadband network argue that the network will provide better prices to consumers, or will drive down private ISP prices. These claims are tenuous at best, and outright deceptive at worst.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/opinion/other-voices/article52779830.html#storylink=cpy

DAVID WILLIAMS
Taxpayers Protection Alliance

SunHerald
1/2/16

http://www.sunherald.com/opinion/other-voices/article52779830.html