[steanne]

it may already be too late for your city. often when cable companies wire up a town, they offer free access to gov and school buildings in return for exclusive development rights. no one can compete with them, including the town itself.

[robflynn]

That happened in the town where I grew up. My parents still cannot get proper broadband. There is a cable company in the town and they have one of these exclusivity agreements with the county.

However, they refuse to provide broadband access to the entire county. It is quite frustrating.