Dear Reader,

The recent action by the US Federal Communications Commission to reverse previous policy and rescind net neutrality received lots of attention. Of course the geeks didn't like it, but a sizable majority of ordinary citizens didn't like it much either. In fact, many wondered who did like it, aside from broadband service providers and those who believe the way to help America succeed is to yield to the wishes of broadband service providers. If you follow the high tech news, you know that much has already been written on this decision – including in this magazine, so I won't dwell on it for long.

What I really want to mention is a report from researchers at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, at Harvard University. The authors studied 40 community-owned ISPs and compared them to similar plans offered by commercial providers. The result was that municipal broadband providers typically charged less and offered more transparent pricing, with fewer gimmicks.

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