A small southern town built its own broadband wireless network: The city of Adel, Georgia, decided to construct its own wireless network to offer broadband service to businesses and residents because the only other high-speed option was some spotty DSL.
This is a somewhat unusual deployment because the city will be the service provider. In other city-run deployments, like a handful in Washington State, the municipalities serve as wholesalers. They build the network but lease it to service providers who market services.
I wonder if these types of deployments catch the eye of the existing broadband operators. Clearly the cities are taking action because the big operators aren’t offering them service. But are the operators losing out by missing these opportunities? Or are cities like Adel really so small that it doesn’t make sense for the big operators to serve them?