Cumberland, Maryland Builds City-Owned High Speed Wireless Data Network
The New York Times reports that the City of Cumberland, Maryland has deployed a high speed wireless network because neither Verizon nor the cable companies in the city and the surrounding area were making inexpensive broadband Internet access widely available. The article implies that the government officials in that area considered the unavailability of broadband an economic stumbling block.
This broadband network is reminiscent of the city power companies that electrified the major cities of the Western United States. Such power companies still exist in Seattle and Los Angeles.