On 2024-05-24 14:32, Asp, David wrote:
Minnesota Strikes Down Preemption Laws Blocking Municipal Broadband | Welcome to Community Networks (communitynets.org) <https://communitynets.org/content/minnesota-strikes-down-preemption-laws-blocking-municipal-broadband>
The scary part of this is the "where it cannot agree with the owner on price, it may acquire an existing plant by condemnation." In other words, a city can use eminent domain to take a private company's network. There is, AFAIK, no statutory restrictions limiting this to cases where the private company is e.g. abandoning/neglecting traditional telephone service. And with the unfortunate Kelo v. City of New London SCOTUS decision, cities' eminent domain power is incredibly broad: they can take private property and give it to another private entity. Hopefully this is not abused. -- Richard