To make a short story long… I had the opportunity to meet Lynne Dahl-Fleming yesterday. I was on my way to work with rural bloggers and Monticello was the perfect place to stop for lunch. Lynne is one of the great forces in Monticello who has been working toward a municipal FTTH network. (One funny note – as you drive into town you see a billboard for FiberNet Monticello promoting fiber; the next sign is TDS promoting fiber. Apparently I missed there’s also a billboard from Charter.)

I really appreciate the way Monticello has shared info with the world on how their project is going. As Lynne and I discussed yesterday, this is more than the story of one incumbent provider suing one town to prohibit a municipal fiber network. Cities and incumbent providers around the world are watching to see what happens next.

Well what happened today is that the Mayor wrote a response to the TDS lawsuit appeal. It is a strong letter! Here are some excerpts – liste in order but pulled from the letter:

We (the city) talked with TDS on several occasions to explore options to give the citizens and businesses of Monticello cutting edge technology.

We were told that they “could not justify the expense” to their shareholders and they “already had good copper in the ground.” Their plan was to continue to offer fiber to new developments, but not address existing homes.

Therefore, the council decided to put it up to you, the citizens of Monticello. You made your voice heard loud and clear by passing a referendum by 74%.

TDS tries to claim that they are suing us to protect the citizens of Monticello, but the truth is that they want to continue their monopoly for land line telephone in Monticello.

The TDS lawsuit was dismissed.

The city is committed to bringing fiber to your home and offering services such as full high definition TV, telephone services (land line, VOIP, cellular) and ultra highspeed Internet (both upload and download).

TDS, it is time to stop punishing the citizens of Monticello. We know that the dismissal of this lawsuit will NOT be overturned.

My final note – I continue to be so impressed with Monticello. Meeting Lynne cemented my admiration. It must be so frustrating but throughout everything they have stayed the course for getting fiber to the City and sharing the story with everyone. Heck – with all this attention and sudden interest in fiber they may help leapfrog the US back into leadership position as far as access to broadband is concerned.