Re: Local governments often lack the required sophistication...
"In the US, the lowest tier of geographic government are the counties. "
"In many, probably most, areas of the US cable monopolies were established at the municipal (city, town, borough, village) level, not county. "
I doubt either of these are correct. Different states in the US have different local government setups.
I have lived in states where pretty much anything important is done at the county level, except in the biggest cities.
Where I currently live is the other extreme, about half the counties have been legally dissolved as governmental entities, and most everything is done at the state or local municipal level. Smaller towns often pool services, especially schools, with regional agreements.
While most towns/cities in my current state have individual municipal cable contracts, even here a friend in a very rural part of the state (with crappy internet choices) is working on a 12+ town regional agreement to create a tax-funded regional fiber district/agency. I'll also toss in - my small local (and not especially wealthy) town does not have any "monopoly" agreements - it has agreements with both Comcast and Verizon fios, and both require 100% residential coverage (My house is 50' from the road, but because Verizon screwed up when laying trunk lines, I have ~1100' fiber from the box on a pole on another road to my house.)
So in summary I am skeptical of any generalization.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
