Models for Local Government Involvement

Gillett, Sharon E., William H. Lehr and Carlos Osorio (2004). Local Government Broadband Initiatives. Telecommunications Policy 28, August/September 2004, p. 537-558. http://itc.mit.edu/itel/docs/2003/localgovbrbd.pdf
This is a paper by a group of researchers at MIT. Other research by this group can be found at the MIT Communications Futures Broadband Working Group website: http://cfp.mit.edu/groups/broadband/broadband.html#accomplish.
This paper can help communities consider the approach that their local government should take towards facilitating a broadband network - whether it's a more direct or more hands off approach. Section II " Taxonomy of Local and Regional Initiatives" of the paper is particularly useful (read the abstract, then move to the beginning of Section II on p. 6). The paper, based on a study of early municipal broadband projects, presents a way of thinking about different roles governments can take in relation to making sure broadband is available for their communities. They found that government approaches towards broadband tend to fall into one on of four categories, including: 1. Government as broadband user. Government indirectly attracts commercial broadband deployment through demand-side policies. In particular, government uses its local leadership role and/or its role as a major telecommunications customer to assess, stimulate or aggregate demand. 2. Government as neutral rule-maker. Government adopts or reforms local ordinances that affect the ease of commercial deployment, such as rights-of-way, utility pole attachments, road and building construction codes, zoning policies affecting wireless antenna placement, and cable franchise agreements. 3. Government as financier. Government provides subsidies for broadband users or providers, which ma y be direct or indirect in the form of planning or equipment grants, tax credits, or other incentives. 4. Government as infrastructure developer. Government adopts supply-side policies in which a division of local government is ultimately responsible for the provision of one or more components of network infrastructure. The paper also analyzes the characteristics of communities where municipal electric utilities (M.E.U.s) have adopted the role of broadband infrastructure provider.