Accessible and affordable broadband internet service is now generally recognized as an essential service. A “flood” of federal and state funding has been and is being authorized to make that service available to all.

Where that flood will flow is now being decided. Whether it flows to the usual recipients, the providers of telecommunications services, or directly to communities, is one of the large questions facing state and federal deciders. What follows is an argument in favor of communities and competition.

The city of Maupin is one of a limited number of communities that owns the fiber optic telecommunications system infrastructure that serves its citizens. Telegraph, telephone and telecommunications has historically been the province of monopoly providers, resulting from inventions, patents, technical complexity, and laws and rules adopted to encourage investment of public funds, to improve and expand the technology and the success of its providers.

Maupin was typical of most rural communities, with limited broadband and the problems associated with having too little population to allow needed improvements to monetarily “pencil out” for providers.

Maupin is in Wasco County, which joined with the city of The Dalles in 2001 as a partner in an agreement creating the QualifyLife Intergovernmental Agency. Now known as the Q-Life Network, this agency led the effort to bring fiber connectivity to The Dalles. One of the rewards of that effort was the first data center created by Google, who is now seeking approval for a fourth and fifth data facility. One of the goals of the five-member board of directors of the agency was to extend fiber to other Wasco County communities, and Maupin was ready.

Maupin turns out to be a leader in a trend that is gathering strength. Competition has been hard to find and sustain in the telecom world as monopoly providers continued to grow through acquisitions that are economically dependent on large profit margins.

New guidance from the U.S. Department of Treasury introduces a welcome change to those communities seeking public funding:

Recipients are encouraged to prioritize investments in fiber-optic infrastructure where feasible, as such advanced technology better supports future needs.

Treasury also encourages recipients to prioritize projects that involve broadband networks owned, operated by or affiliated with local governments, nonprofits, and cooperatives — providers with less pressure to generate profits and with a commitment to serving entire communities.

In the Maupin model, the primary provider, known in telecom speak as the “incumbent local exchange carrier,” or ILEC, is CenturyLink. Now the ILEC has two private competitors who are using the Maupin fiber system, and have claimed most of the broadband subscribers. The ILEC chose not to use the Maupin fiber, but has now adjusted its prices in response to competitive market forces.

Consumers are aware of the benefits of broadband system ownership. “Three out of four Americans feel that municipal/community broadband should be allowed because it would ensure that broadband access is treated like other vital infrastructure such as highways, bridges, water systems, and electrical grids, allowing all Americans to have equal access to it.”

How Maupin came to own its fiber to the premises system and its effects make a good story, one that other communities may wish to copy using the flood of federal and state funding now being made available to build better broadband.

Do you have a point you’d like to make or an issue you feel strongly about? Submit a letter to the editor or a guest column.