WV gov’t may experiment with broadband service as a public utility

West Virginia is looking to boost economic growth by investing public funds in …

The West Virginia legislature may be about to righteously enrage not only Verizon and other broadband service providers but libertarians everywhere by offering statewide broadband Internet access as a public utility, like water and sewer service. This initiative is part of an overall strategy to boost the state's economy by making it an attractive place for technology companies.

That bill and the concept it proposes is called "ETOPIA," which is an acronym for Electronic Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Act... "We think that that's the most important part," David Levine, director of technology and transformation in the Development Office, said. "The idea is to have a think-tank that explores the best-known methods for public-private partnerships. Then, we'd be able to implement those partnerships and the technologies that are created through those partnerships for the benefit of citizens and the expansion of the economy."

Another major provision would give county and municipal governments authority to provide cable, telecommunications, wireless and broadband Internet network services and similar services. It would also give them authority to acquire or build technology infrastructure and issue bonds to pay for it.

In spite of what the enraged Verizon lobbyist quoted in the news article might have you believe, the West Virginia legislature is taking a tried and true formula for growth and applying it to broadband. Government involvement in providing communications and transport infrastructure has a long and very successful history, and I'm not just talking about the famous "Celtic Tiger" referenced in the news report. The USPS used public funds to initially build a mail service infrastructure in this country at a time when such a project would have been far beyond the reach of private industry. This mail service infrastructure laid a foundation for economic growth by providing a relatively inexpensive and effective network that commercial and private interests could use for shipping and communications. Thanks in part to the USPS, the American economy eventually grew to the point where companies like UPS and FedEx could come along and enter into competition with the USPS and with each other.

Of course, I should clarify that it's important that the state not have a permanent monopoly on broadband access, but as far as I can tell that's not what WV is proposing. Though this is unclear from the article, it seems like the project will, like the USPS, eventually take in revenue, which means that it won't be sustained by state tax dollars. This makes the proposal different than some of the other free public Internet access proposals that have been floated, most of which I'm intrigued by but a bit leery of for various libertarian reasons of my own (i.e. privacy and civil liberties concerns, but also the anti-competitive and progress-stifling nature of some government monopolies, whether de facto or legally enforced *cough* NASA *cough*).

So I'm all for West Virginia's proposal, and I hope they do it. I also hope that they do it in such a way that it's eventually self-sustaining and not taxpayer-funded. That way, the government would lay the groundwork by extending broadband access to all areas of the state, and private sector companies could eventually come in and compete with the state-owned ISP.

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