If you drive around my hometown of Midland, Michigan this week, you\u2019ll see a constant stream of utility workers. Many of them work for internet companies and are hard at work expanding services.<\/p>\n
Charter and AT&T have both announced expansions of fiber internet. In the last two years, my bill with Charter declined by $20 per month while at the same time almost quadrupling in speed.<\/p>\n
A new competitor, Ripple Fiber, has also entered the market<\/a>. The company is in 1,200 homes with a goal of getting to 12,000 in the next year. Plans run from $65 per month for 500 Mbps to $95 for 2 Gbps. And Omni Fiber is expanding<\/a>, focused on more rural and hard-to-reach areas.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how things are supposed to work for consumers. A variety of companies in the market competing over customers with the government setting an even playing field for everyone. Midland has done a good job following the advice of the Mackinac Center\u2019s broadband toolkit<\/a> for local governments and high-speed internet at competitive pricing has followed.<\/p>\n That\u2019s in stark contrast to what has happened in Traverse City. For at least six years, the public electric utility, Traverse City Light & Power, has been pushing hard for a government-owned and operated high-speed internet service across the city. This network has costs millions in taxpayer dollars and missed virtually every goal<\/a> \u2013 in terms of cost, build-out and number of customers.<\/p>\n Phase 1 of the project \u2013 a full build-out in the core of the city \u2013 was supposed to be done years ago. The TCL&P predicted<\/a> it would be built with 50% of people signing up for service in by year two and bring in $1.2 million. The latest claims is that it may finally get done<\/a> by the end of this year or in 2026 and the services currently rolled out have resulted in a $645,000 deficit.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the network is asking for another $1 million loan<\/a> from taxpayers for a project that has now ballooned to $14 million. Taxpayers are ultimately on the hook of not enough people sign up and the network fails financially, as has repeatedly happened<\/a> with other city-owned internet systems.<\/p>\n And what have customers gotten for all this time, effort and money? Not much. The public-run network \u2013 TCLPfiber \u2013 currently offers monthly plans costing<\/a> $60 (up to 200 Mbps), $70 (up to 500 Mbps) and $90 (up to 1 gig). The main private provider \u2013 Charter Spectrum \u2013 currently offers monthly plans costing<\/a> $30 (up to 100 Mbps), $50 (up to 500 Mbps) and $70 (up to 1 gig).<\/p>\n In sum, taxpayers have shelled out $3.5 million for a fiber\/smart grid project in Traverse City and are on the hook for $14.5 million for internet speeds that are more expensive than what the private operator currently provides. That\u2019s really bad \u2013 even for government work.<\/p>\n