Since it was first introduced in Congress in March, the Community Broadband Act of 2021 has gained widespread support from over 45 organizations representing local governments, public utilities, racial equity groups, private industry, and citizen advocates. 

The legislation -- introduced by U.S. Representatives Anna Eshoo, Jared Golden, and U.S. Senator Cory Booker -- would authorize local communities to build and maintain their own Internet infrastructure by prohibiting laws in 17 states that ban or limit the ability of state, regional, and local governments to build broadband networks and provide Internet services. 

The Act also overturns state laws that restrict electric cooperatives' ability to provide Internet services, as well as laws that restrain public agencies from entering into public-private partnerships.

States have started to remove some long-standing barriers to public broadband on their own. In the last year, state lawmakers in both Arkansas and Washington removed significant barriers to municipal broadband networks, as high-quality Internet with upload speeds sufficient for remote work, distance learning, telehealth, and other online civic and cultural engagement has become essential. 

Community broadband networks offer a path to connect the unconnected to next-generation networks. State barriers have contributed to the lack of competition in the broadband market and most communities will not soon gain access without public investments or, at the very least, the plausible threat of community broadband.

The Many Benefits of Publicly-Owned Networks

Since it was first introduced in Congress in March, the Community Broadband Act of 2021 has gained widespread support from over 45 organizations representing local governments, public utilities, racial equity groups, private industry, and citizen advocates. 

The legislation -- introduced by U.S. Representatives Anna Eshoo, Jared Golden, and U.S. Senator Cory Booker -- would authorize local communities to build and maintain their own Internet infrastructure by prohibiting laws in 17 states that ban or limit the ability of state, regional, and local governments to build broadband networks and provide Internet services. 

The Act also overturns state laws that restrict electric cooperatives' ability to provide Internet services, as well as laws that restrain public agencies from entering into public-private partnerships.

States have started to remove some long-standing barriers to public broadband on their own. In the last year, state lawmakers in both Arkansas and Washington removed significant barriers to municipal broadband networks, as high-quality Internet with upload speeds sufficient for remote work, distance learning, telehealth, and other online civic and cultural engagement has become essential. 

Community broadband networks offer a path to connect the unconnected to next-generation networks. State barriers have contributed to the lack of competition in the broadband market and most communities will not soon gain access without public investments or, at the very least, the plausible threat of community broadband.

The Many Benefits of Publicly-Owned Networks

With the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s Comptroller’s office recent approval of the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) business plan, the city-owned utility proposal to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the Volunteer State’s third-largest city is set to take the next step.

Tonight, KUB will hold a hearing to get public input on KUB’s plan to bring high-speed Internet service to its 210,000 customers spread out across Knoxville, Knox County, and small parts of seven neighboring counties.

If the KUB Board of Commissioners approves the final plan, along with a needed two-thirds majority support from the Knoxville City Council, network construction could start sometime next year and would take about seven years to build out.

But it won’t come cheap. “We project that the cost to build out the network and ultimately staff and operate that network, estimated cost is about $500 million over the first ten years of operation of the business line,” KUB Vice President Jamie Davis told WATE 6 News. 

Funds to construct the network would come in part from a 3 percent annual rate increase on KUB electric customers from 2022-2025. After 2025, KUB electric customers would see an estimated increase of $10.50 in their monthly electric bill, according to Knox News.

And the Survey Says…

With the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s Comptroller’s office recent approval of the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) business plan, the city-owned utility proposal to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the Volunteer State’s third-largest city is set to take the next step.

Tonight, KUB will hold a hearing to get public input on KUB’s plan to bring high-speed Internet service to its 210,000 customers spread out across Knoxville, Knox County, and small parts of seven neighboring counties.

If the KUB Board of Commissioners approves the final plan, along with a needed two-thirds majority support from the Knoxville City Council, network construction could start sometime next year and would take about seven years to build out.

But it won’t come cheap. “We project that the cost to build out the network and ultimately staff and operate that network, estimated cost is about $500 million over the first ten years of operation of the business line,” KUB Vice President Jamie Davis told WATE 6 News. 

Funds to construct the network would come in part from a 3 percent annual rate increase on KUB electric customers from 2022-2025. After 2025, KUB electric customers would see an estimated increase of $10.50 in their monthly electric bill, according to Knox News.

And the Survey Says…

With the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s Comptroller’s office recent approval of the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) business plan, the city-owned utility proposal to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the Volunteer State’s third-largest city is set to take the next step.

Tonight, KUB will hold a hearing to get public input on KUB’s plan to bring high-speed Internet service to its 210,000 customers spread out across Knoxville, Knox County, and small parts of seven neighboring counties.

If the KUB Board of Commissioners approves the final plan, along with a needed two-thirds majority support from the Knoxville City Council, network construction could start sometime next year and would take about seven years to build out.

But it won’t come cheap. “We project that the cost to build out the network and ultimately staff and operate that network, estimated cost is about $500 million over the first ten years of operation of the business line,” KUB Vice President Jamie Davis told WATE 6 News. 

Funds to construct the network would come in part from a 3 percent annual rate increase on KUB electric customers from 2022-2025. After 2025, KUB electric customers would see an estimated increase of $10.50 in their monthly electric bill, according to Knox News.

And the Survey Says…

With the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s Comptroller’s office recent approval of the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) business plan, the city-owned utility proposal to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the Volunteer State’s third-largest city is set to take the next step.

Tonight, KUB will hold a hearing to get public input on KUB’s plan to bring high-speed Internet service to its 210,000 customers spread out across Knoxville, Knox County, and small parts of seven neighboring counties.

If the KUB Board of Commissioners approves the final plan, along with a needed two-thirds majority support from the Knoxville City Council, network construction could start sometime next year and would take about seven years to build out.

But it won’t come cheap. “We project that the cost to build out the network and ultimately staff and operate that network, estimated cost is about $500 million over the first ten years of operation of the business line,” KUB Vice President Jamie Davis told WATE 6 News. 

Funds to construct the network would come in part from a 3 percent annual rate increase on KUB electric customers from 2022-2025. After 2025, KUB electric customers would see an estimated increase of $10.50 in their monthly electric bill, according to Knox News.

And the Survey Says…

With the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s Comptroller’s office recent approval of the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) business plan, the city-owned utility proposal to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the Volunteer State’s third-largest city is set to take the next step.

Tonight, KUB will hold a hearing to get public input on KUB’s plan to bring high-speed Internet service to its 210,000 customers spread out across Knoxville, Knox County, and small parts of seven neighboring counties.

If the KUB Board of Commissioners approves the final plan, along with a needed two-thirds majority support from the Knoxville City Council, network construction could start sometime next year and would take about seven years to build out.

But it won’t come cheap. “We project that the cost to build out the network and ultimately staff and operate that network, estimated cost is about $500 million over the first ten years of operation of the business line,” KUB Vice President Jamie Davis told WATE 6 News. 

Funds to construct the network would come in part from a 3 percent annual rate increase on KUB electric customers from 2022-2025. After 2025, KUB electric customers would see an estimated increase of $10.50 in their monthly electric bill, according to Knox News.

And the Survey Says…

With the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s Comptroller’s office recent approval of the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) business plan, the city-owned utility proposal to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the Volunteer State’s third-largest city is set to take the next step.

Tonight, KUB will hold a hearing to get public input on KUB’s plan to bring high-speed Internet service to its 210,000 customers spread out across Knoxville, Knox County, and small parts of seven neighboring counties.

If the KUB Board of Commissioners approves the final plan, along with a needed two-thirds majority support from the Knoxville City Council, network construction could start sometime next year and would take about seven years to build out.

But it won’t come cheap. “We project that the cost to build out the network and ultimately staff and operate that network, estimated cost is about $500 million over the first ten years of operation of the business line,” KUB Vice President Jamie Davis told WATE 6 News. 

Funds to construct the network would come in part from a 3 percent annual rate increase on KUB electric customers from 2022-2025. After 2025, KUB electric customers would see an estimated increase of $10.50 in their monthly electric bill, according to Knox News.

And the Survey Says…

With the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s Comptroller’s office recent approval of the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) business plan, the city-owned utility proposal to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the Volunteer State’s third-largest city is set to take the next step.

Tonight, KUB will hold a hearing to get public input on KUB’s plan to bring high-speed Internet service to its 210,000 customers spread out across Knoxville, Knox County, and small parts of seven neighboring counties.

If the KUB Board of Commissioners approves the final plan, along with a needed two-thirds majority support from the Knoxville City Council, network construction could start sometime next year and would take about seven years to build out.

But it won’t come cheap. “We project that the cost to build out the network and ultimately staff and operate that network, estimated cost is about $500 million over the first ten years of operation of the business line,” KUB Vice President Jamie Davis told WATE 6 News. 

Funds to construct the network would come in part from a 3 percent annual rate increase on KUB electric customers from 2022-2025. After 2025, KUB electric customers would see an estimated increase of $10.50 in their monthly electric bill, according to Knox News.

And the Survey Says…

With the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the state’s Comptroller’s office recent approval of the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) business plan, the city-owned utility proposal to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the Volunteer State’s third-largest city is set to take the next step.

Tonight, KUB will hold a hearing to get public input on KUB’s plan to bring high-speed Internet service to its 210,000 customers spread out across Knoxville, Knox County, and small parts of seven neighboring counties.

If the KUB Board of Commissioners approves the final plan, along with a needed two-thirds majority support from the Knoxville City Council, network construction could start sometime next year and would take about seven years to build out.

But it won’t come cheap. “We project that the cost to build out the network and ultimately staff and operate that network, estimated cost is about $500 million over the first ten years of operation of the business line,” KUB Vice President Jamie Davis told WATE 6 News. 

Funds to construct the network would come in part from a 3 percent annual rate increase on KUB electric customers from 2022-2025. After 2025, KUB electric customers would see an estimated increase of $10.50 in their monthly electric bill, according to Knox News.

And the Survey Says…