Muni Failure vs. Major Failure
This is a good article and I'm grateful for Smart Planet recognizing our work. To start a conversation, I would nitpick one comment from it.
I'm not going to argue that no muni networks have failed, but I'm curious at the suggestion that Seattle's Wi-Fi network failed. By what measure?
Sure, it didn't take become a competitor to Comcast, but I don't think that was the goal. It provided a free service for people that they used. In the end, it was shut down because it was no longer a good use to taxpayer money. That does not necessarily mean it never was a good use of taxpayer money (since I have brought it up, I should note that using taxpayer money is a rarity in financing community broadband).
The main failure in broadband is the private sector cable and telephone companies. Unlike other essential utilities, broadband is priced extraordinarily high and it is far less reliable than anything would accept from electric or natural gas companies.
