The ITIF (Information Technology & Innovation Foundation) releases a report (Government-Owned Broadband Networks Are Not Competing on a Level Playing Field) looking at 20 Government Owned Networks. Here are their key takeaways:

• ITIF evaluated the finances, regulatory status, and economic sustainability of 20 government-owned broadband networks (GONs). The analysis found they are not competing on a level playing field with private Internet service providers (ISPs).
• Governments are generally less efficient at building and operating broadband networks because they lack the experience, skill, and economies of scale of private broadband providers.
• GONs often operate on an unlevel playing field, allowing them to compete unfairly with private ISPs.
• These advantages include capital grants not available to private ISPs, tax exemptions, and more favorable treatment by state and local regulatory authorities.
• When favoritism results in choosing duplicative or inefficient networks, the result is wasted U.S. societal resources.

States should be careful about using Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD)  funding to make GONs sustainable. U.S. broadband policy should advance broad national interests, not prop up subsidized GONs.

One of the networks they looked at was in Minnesota (Barnesville Municipal Utilities). Here’s what they note about them:

• Name: Barnesville Municipal Utilities
• Years (of finance examined?): 2023
• Operating Margin: 79.81%
• Operating Revenue: $534,477
• Operating Expenses: $107,933
• Operating Income: $426,544

And here’s what they say about rights-of-way regulations in MN…

Minnesota state law M.S. § 237.163 exempts municipal broadband from ROW regulations.8 This exemption means Barnesville Municipal Utilities is not beholden to the same extensive deployment regulations private ISPs would face to deploy their network hardware in ROW. This special treatment for GONs extends to rules regarding restoration areas around dig sites and permits for small wireless facilities. Barnesville Municipal Utilities represents one of the best-performing GONs from the group, as it was profitable without receiving alternative funds and has deployed across the entire city.9 However, it is important to consider that its “success” may be due to facing fewer regulatory hurdles when deploying its network infrastructure. A private ISP would have had to expend extensive resources just to get permission to deploy in the first place. To establish a level playing field, deployment rules not required for GONs should not be required for private ISPs.

“I think we’re going to see more talk about commercial versus government-owned networks. Early on in the BEAD process (and some since) was talk about the (potential) impact of BEAD on municipal and commercial providers. Last MN Legislative session, there were bills that some through might challenge larger companies. It’s a conundrum, especially with $42.5 billion of BEAD funding slowly coming into communities.”