The folly of fiber in Forbes

In 2015, Google announced its intention to work with the city of Louisville to install Google Fiber in order to improve internet speeds for Louisvillians. Since the beginning, the process has been a mess of closed doors and bureaucracy.

Recently, Louisville’s problem was nationally recognized on Forbes’ website. Commentator Steve Pociask discusses the proposal to bring high-speed Internet in light of the city’s budget plans this week. Costing $5.4 million dollars, Pociask called the plan “an ill-conceived use of taxpayer funds.”

In the less-than-two years since the plans were announced for Fiber, technology has already changed, making Fiber less attractive and more outdated. Google is now working on wireless technology, according to Pociask.

To their detriment, though, Louisville continues to pursue the costly hardwired high-speed option without the support of Google. Pociask quotes a study that demonstrates a fiber network will not make money for a city. The result is higher costs for taxpayers without any monetary gain to the state.

As Pociask declares, “Government-run monopolies are bad investments for consumers and taxpayers.”

We couldn’t have said it better. In fact, we've made similar points in commenting numerous times on the secrecy surrounding contracts and the excessive government intervention of broadband boondoggles like KentuckyWired, the duplicative, wasteful and unnecessary statewide project.