Public or Private?

By Continued

Iowans speak proudly of the state-spanning communications network that their legislature has built for them since 1991, even if some of them have grumbled along the way about the $200 million in tax dollars it has cost.

The fiber-optic network, which can transmit television-quality video signals between specially equipped facilities scattered across the state, has given farmers a way to discuss the factory-style hog farms that have been moving into Iowa; deaf students a way to speak in sign language across the miles; and rural high schoolers a chance to take languages and advanced courses their own schools don't offer.

Other states have added similar technology to their communications networks the old-fashioned way: by waiting for private industry to do it. But that's left many communities--especially in large, thinly populated areas--on hold, because telecommunications companies have tended to concentrate first on bringing new services to areas...