Now this solution will definitely work better in smaller communities as it could be hard to get the government of a very large municipality to invest the money required to roll out your own ISP, but the effort is worth it.  Monticello, Minnesota ended up hiring TDS Telecommunications to roll out their own fiber to the home network.  Now enjoying 50Mbs for $40/month without having to bundle with other services thanks to a 2007 referendum that the town would roll out its own network.  That attempt to build their own network lead to lawsuits filed by TDS, which they lost, so now they are offering the fastest and cheapest access in the US.  Lafeyette, Louisiana lit up a fiber system as well and Cox Cable have dropped their prices for that town, but nowhere else.  Drop by for more competition in action at Ars Technica.

“ISPs may not act for years on local complaints about slow Internet – but when a town rolls out its own solution, it’s amazing how fast the incumbents can deploy fiber, cut prices, and run to the legislature.”

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