So, Shrewsbury, MA is on the list and their municipal cable has been around forever. Since I have experience with them, I can tell you that a town owned cable company isn't some sort of panacea. A town owned cable company is like a credit union. It's really cool that they're kinda "on your side". With Comcast and RCN (the other two cable companies I have experience with), I have to be remain on my toes lest they increase my rates. Likewise, they can be mean in that "ha, we're a big company and you don't have any other options" way (even though I'm living in one of the few places that does have two cable companies - RCN and Comcast).

However, it can also be annoying. I remember Shrewsbury's cable company being a bit behind the other cable companies in the area in getting us broadband service. It wasn't terribly behind, but when we were on dial-up, it was terribly annoying to see the neighboring towns with their commercial cable companies getting broadband before we did (no matter how small the gap was, when you're on dial up things seem like an eternity ;-)). Their prices are what I would consider "fair". $40 for 10Mbps doesn't seem like gouging, but it isn't exactly cheap. I'm currently paying $20 for 15Mbps - but I know that they'll continually try to up me to $65 and hope I don't complain. Shrewsbury also puts caps on how much you can download. The 10Mbps plan includes 250GB of transfer which is the same limit that Comcast and AT&T use. It's hard for a small provider to handle a couple people that use an outrageous amount and the limit feels like the practical things that a credit union does to make sure that it can serve all its members. They also up your transfer limit as you buy more speed - $50 gets you 15Mbps and 400GB of transfer. And 400GB is a lot of transfer considering that it's about the maximum one can transfer in a month over a fully saturated T1 connection used every second of every day. Heck, they even sell equipment at good rates - an 802.11N router at $40 is a fair price.

Their cable rates are similarly "fair" in that they're the honest and genuine prices that they think they can do business at and they're aren't looking to hook you on low teaser rates.

The service is pleasant and it's nice to know that you're getting the rate and not getting screwed by not knowing about some hidden deal. However, they don't really beat the speed or pricing of commercial offerings. They currently top out at 50Mbps for just shy of $100/mo while still capping upload at 2Mbps. Comcast is offering that service in my area for a little over $100/mo with 10Mbps upload. RCN is offering 60Mbps at that price range with uploads capped at 6Mbps.

There isn't some huge panacea by going with a town-owned system. It's still really cool in the way that credit unions are really cool and, like credit unions, they can sometimes have a real local (and sometimes small) feel to them. That's good and bad. On the one hand, you're usually treated well. These people are your neighbors and if you treat people poorly, it just isn't good for you. It also means that sometimes you don't get the latest cable channels or things aren't as flashy with online portals where you can monitor usage and such.

I hate the idea that companies are trying to prevent these types of projects. However, it's also annoying when people who haven't used one of these municipal systems think that these projects mean 100Mbps connections to the home for $20/mo. Think of them like credit unions: they're on your side, they're trying to be nice to you, but they don't change everything. Companies don't (usually) have profit margins of 200%. Some of the lack of profit margin gets eaten by a lack of scale (Comcast has a lot more scale than a municipal project). But it's very relaxing to be a customer of a company that you feel has a fair pricing system - rather than constantly being at odds with a company you feel is trying to screw you.