shitty, protectionist laws in around twenty states that either ban or heavily hamstring towns and cities from building their own broadband networks. It’s a scenario where ISPs get to have their cake and eat it too; they often refuse to upgrade their networks in under-served areas (particularly true among telcos offering DSL), but also get to write shitty laws preventing these under-served towns from doing anything about it even if such efforts are approved by the majority of voters. I pay you with untraceable cash, you do what I want