Community Savings
Due to the presence of municipal communications utilities

Municipal communications utilities exist to provide citizens with access to the best possible service at the lowest possible cost. This mission is quite different from that of private providers, who charge the highest rate the market will bear in order to create the best possible return for their investors.

In the communities listed below, the investors are the citizens. Their return is measured not in terms of quarterly dividends, but in terms of improved service and savings.

What are these communities saving compared to other towns without municipal utilities? The chart below shows the total annual rate savings for cable TV and Internet services in these municipal communications utility towns:

These numbers don’t represent cost savings for telephone service. Since some of these same communities also offer affordable local and long distance telephone service, these community savings numbers may be even higher. Also not included in the savings table is the value of services to business and industry. In many cases, services provided to business, including direct fiber and dark fiber, are not available from other local providers.

Consumers in these towns save money even if they don’t choose the municipal provider because private companies charge much lower rates in these towns than they do in towns without a competitive provider.