Broadband roadblock bad for Nebraska

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Nebraska needs fast broadband Internet service to prosper in the 21st century. The quickest way to make that vital service available to businesses and consumers in rural areas of the state is to allow publicly owned utilities and locally owned governments to provide it.

But the Legislature threw a roadblock in the path of progress last year when it passed a two-year moratorium on that sort of thing.

A task force was supposed to begin studying the issue. But it has begun to meet only recently.

Meanwhile, access to high-speed broadband continues to spread across the United States, dividing the country into the haves and the have-nots. Thanks to the moratorium, much of Nebraska languishes in the have-not category.

Nebraska’s privately owned phone companies pushed for the prohibition. Their opposition has not abated. That’s perhaps understandable, since phone service is now offered over the Internet. They don’t want competition. And the phone company’s main argument — that government should not compete with the private sector — has undeniable appeal.

The trouble with their argument is that strict reliance on the private sector means Nebraska businesses and consumers are on the outside looking in, condemned to slow, dial-up Internet access.

The private sector is not providing broadband. Because government and publicly owned utilities have been blocked by legislation, that means that that no one is providing the service.

Early in the 20th century, Nebraska found itself in a similar situation when the private sector failed to provide electricity to vast swaths of the state. That’s when hardy, self-reliant Nebraskans banded together in the public sector to furnish their own electricity. The legacy lives on today; Nebraska is the only state in the nation where all electricity is publicly owned.

Today, Nebraska’s leaders should follow the sensible example set by their predecessors.

A “white paper” arguing strongly that Nebraska should permit public entities in the state to provide broadband access was released Monday by a coalition of Nebraska organizations.

Prepared by the Brennan Center for Justice based in New York, the paper suggests: “In a worst-case scenario, Nebraska towns may lose businesses that need high-speed Internet access to larger towns or other states or countries. … Nebraska companies large and small depend on timely data. Communities with affordable broadband will have a competitive advantage.”

The city of Lincoln may have a way around the current moratorium by creating an arrangement in which a private company would get a franchise to provide a high-speed wireless network.

But that arrangement may not be best for other communities in the state. The Brennan Center suggests legislators step aside and let local communities decide for themselves whether they need the public sector to provide one of the 21st centuries necessities. The task force and state senators should pay heed.