by Ansel Hertz
As I've reported before, Seattle desperately needs affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service, and a lot of people are pissed off that the city's two dominant providers - Comcast and CenturyLink - haven't yet made it available in all parts of town. President Obama says he stands behind any city that wants to take matter into its own hands, over those companies' objections, by creating municipal utility-run gigabit broadband network.
Mayor Ed Murray has said he's considering the municipal broadband option, pending yet another city-commissioned study about its feasibility that's due this month. But he's also said he wants to give CenturyLink and Comcast (both major donors to his mayoral campaign) a chance to "step up" and provide fiber-optic gigabit service throughout Seattle.
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