The Lessons of Broadband

Seventeen years ago, the legislature reluctantly passed into law the right for municipal electric utilities to offer fiber optic high speed broadband and other services to their electric power customers, in direct competition with very vocal and well funded opposition from the legacy providers, At&T, Comcast and others. 

The law was necessary because these carriers were simply not doing what Tennesseans needed. But the legislators, many of them beholden to their corporate donors, made sure to protect the carriers' interests by making sure the utilities could serve only their electric utility customers.

Not all utility providers were willing or able to take on the daunting and expensive challenge but seven did – Bristol, Morristown, Chattanooga, Clarksville, Jackson, Tullahoma, Pulaski -- and they have all prospered beyond their wildest dreams. Thousands of new jobs came to Tennessee, many of them high tech-high pay. Chattanooga added some 2800 new jobs. The city attracted innovative young entrepreneurs who started new businesses, and venture capital to fund them. Pulaski – tiny Pulaski – population 7800 – attracted an innovative Italian manufacturer of automotive lighting, drawing in over 1,000 new hires. Morristown landed Sykes, an inbound call center, with a forecasted need for over 500 workers.

Indeed, Thousands of new jobs came to Tennessee, but most to the cities with high speed broadband – and therein lies the lessons. Where there is broadband, there are jobs. If Tennessee's counties all had broadband, they would outcompete the counties in eighteen other states.

But the lessons failed to resonate with all but a few of the state's legislators. It's not that the rest were ignorant, or deaf. Not at all. They knew well how the broadband communities were faring, but their ears belonged to lobbyists with different music – and pockets of money. And money talks.

It is incumbent on Tennessee's citizens to call out the legislators whose self interest runs contrary to the needs of their constituents and, indeed the entire state. I am one of those citizens.

There are bills in the Legislature that will allow utilities to expand broadband service by deleting the “within its service area” language of the previous law. I now know which of the members of the House and Senate committees who receive the bills ( HB1303, SB1134, introduced by Rep. Kevin Brooks and Sen. Janice Bowling respectively) and decide whether to pass them along for a floor vote is receiving thousands of dollars in contributions to influence a No vote, and who in the House and Senate are receiving similar contributions with the expectation that their votes, too, will be negative.

I and the thousands like me are going all out to educate our fellow citizens, and we're in this to win it.

Many people just don't get it that the successes of the seven cities represent a model for the potential success of the state. Tennessee is one of 20 states that are controlled by the giants and, as a result, are self-limiting their abilities to compete on a global basis. If we, like Alabama, break out of this model, the entire state stands to attract and secure new businesses, attract new innovators and entrepreneurs, grow the businesses we have, better educate our students, and provide much needed medical care at much lower prices.

Tennesseans stand to prosper if the bills pass into law. It remains to be seen who our legislators work for.

Joseph Malgeri Dandridge, TN 37725 email: fibreopticconsultant@gmail.com