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A comment on The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped over 4x in two years. Parent comment

Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by edmundsauto on Thursday April 29, 2021 @12:24AM (#26977456)
Is it a requirement that these common goods and services have private competition that is on equal footing? Private security, trash services, libraries (netflix) all have private competition that seems to be thriving in the spaces that have higher requirements, but the baseline situation appears to be handled for much of the region.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by winstonewert on Thursday April 29, 2021 @12:42AM (#26977541)
It's not a requirement. Or at least: we commonly accept many such services provided by municipalities.

What is a requirement is acknowledging the unequal footing.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by edmundsauto on Thursday April 29, 2021 @01:18AM (#26977717)
Public and private will always be on unequal footing, due to the difference in the their objectives. It may also be worthwhile to point out that public infra is designed to serve even people who can’t otherwise afford it, as well as limited by their ability to attract talent. (I’m sure there are others.)

I had assumed we all felt comfortable using “public/private” as a shortcut for all of these differences, but am learning that is not necessarily shared. In terms of moving the discussion forward, what were you hoping to achieve by pointing out some of these facts?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by kgantchev on Thursday April 29, 2021 @02:10AM (#26977937)
The difference in footing is not based on objectives but the means by which funding is obtained. In the case of private companies, the funding can only by obtained by providing services that the market demands. The government obtains its funding by taxing people.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by kortilla on Thursday April 29, 2021 @03:43AM (#26978430)
> Public and private will always be on unequal footing, due to the difference in the their objectives.

No they won’t. Public projects can be setup to require that they are revenue neutral or positive.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by winstonewert on Thursday April 29, 2021 @08:56AM (#26980566)
I'm hoping to accomplish pointing out the silliness of the post I originally responded to, which asserted that there was no reason to think it would be unfair competition.
[ Parent | on HN ]