Dalton, Georgia (est. population 32,140) has the dubious distinction of being the nation’s top municipal broadband “money pit,” accounting for $171 million, or $5,320 per capita, of the $840 million spent across the 52 cities studied in the February 2007 Pacific Research Institute study, Wi-Fi Waste: The Disaster of Municipal Communications Networks.
The other nine cities with the highest spending on broadband are:
Tacoma, Washington………….$110.9 million
Grant County, Washington……………$76.4 million
Jackson, Tennessee…………………….$63.7 million
Alameda, California………………….$59.3 million
Provo, Utah………………………………………$45.7 million
Newnan, Georgia……………………………….$41.8 million
Bristol, Virginia………………………………….$37.8 million
Marietta, Georgia………………………………..$25.9 million
Muscatine, Iowa…………………………………$22.9 million
Together, these 10 systems account for 78 percent of total government-initiated spending in the U.S. telecom industry.
— Steven Titch
Steven Titch is a policy analyst focusing on telecommunications, Internet and information technology. He is also a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute.
