Why Municipal Broadband?
Seattle is a high tech, entrepreneurial city, and it is an embarrassment that 15% of our city lacks access to home internet. By creating a new public internet utility, just as Seattle has done with City Light, we will be joining the network of over 750 communities who have invested in their own technological infrastructure and provided competition and affordability in a market that suffers from a lack of both.
Municipal broadband would be democratically controlled and accountable to the public. As such, the utility would guarantee consumer protections like Network Neutrality, be forbidden from selling user's browsing data, and prevent the use of anti-consumer practices like data caps and secretive price increases.
A city-owned option could also drive down competitor prices and improve their level of service.