Proponents of municipal broadband networks often argue that they need to exit in order to serve unserved or underserved areas. But in many cases, the municipal networks are very upfront about intentionally competing against private sector providers.
On the home page of Wilson NC’s “Greenlight Community Broadband” municipal network, which is petitioning the FCC to violate the Constitution and overturn North Carolina law regulating municipal broadband networks, the majority of their home page real estate is devoted to arguments encouraging customers to switch from commercial providers to Greenlight.
Greenlight’s primary concern doesn’t seem to be serving unserved areas—rather it seems primarily interested in drawing its customer base from the customer bases of private sector providers. Providing a serve that the private sector is already providing, in other words.
Worth violating the Constitution over, FCC? Worth certain federal lawsuits?