Tennessee is suing to stop communities like Chattanooga from extending high-quality, low-cost broadband service to Tennesseans. Your tax dollars are going to lawyers who are working to keep Tennessee on the wrong side of the digital divide.
This isn’t just an abstract issue. Recently, my parents received an offer on their Knoxville home from an engineer who worked a significant portion of his time from home. When the prospective buyer found out that no company offered broadband to the home, the deal fell through. Eventually my parents sold the house but for $27,000 less than the first buyer had offered.
Broadband simply isn’t available in my parents’ former neighborhood. Comcast, Charter and AT&T all refuse to offer the service there.
Some communities, when faced with similar refusals, take the initiative to build their own broadband networks. Chattanooga is one such community.
Once Chattanooga built its own fiber network, the citizens got blazing-fast Internet access at very affordable prices.