Seems like a golden opportunity for a community owned and operated Internet provider.

I'm not sure anyone who has started a local ISP would call it a "golden opportunity", regardless of the circumstances.

It's no different than trying to start a local ISP anywhere.

I mean a number of states made it against the law for cities to create their own internet services and there are lots of different utility laws, so I don't think the same set of rules applies everywhere.

Comcast or whoever the coaxial ISP is will drop their prices to where customers will choose them over any new fiber network.

This is what I kindly refer to as the "Comcast Be Good Stick". They're tyrants about things like data caps, speeds, etc. Then the fiber trucks roll in with a Ditch Witch and they're all of a sudden ready to play ball. The only thing is, they simply can't give a residential customer anything more than 6Mps up. Sure I can get 500Mpbs down but, honestly, anything after 200, I barely notice. I'm just not streaming 4k video or anything like that.

My cable modem ISP is even better: no guaranteed upload speed at all for any service level.

I have never seen a cable ISP advertise upload, but the problem is enough people do not differentiate between a poor quality oversubscribed coaxial connection, and a high quality, low latency, symmetric fiber connection that would improve their backups, video calls, and file sharing.

I would take a 100/100 fiber to the home connection than a “1Gbps” Comcast connection.

> Seems like a golden opportunity for a community owned and operated Internet provider.

Somewhat related.

I'm in the middle of signing a lease on a new place...

One of the biggest draws for me is what me and my friends jokingly call "the socialist service" I'm going to have.

Water, Sewer, Electricity, Phone, Cable and Internet (up to 2gig!) all in one bill and managed by the same company. Oh and the bill is on average cheaper than even a single electricity bill from the nearby city my old place was in.

Only downside is the internet is cable so not asymmetric.

I think you have it backwards. Cable generally is asymmetric.