Other cities have installed internet systems and provided better service at a lower price than is available from the private providers.  Since they will have the example of these other cities to follow and build upon there is no reason to think Ft. Collins will do just as good or a better job than they have. This could very well become a means to draw business development into the city as it has done elsewhere.  As far as service degradation and stagnating technology, our private system seems to cost more than service in the rest of the developed world while we come in around 10th is speed.  What Ft. Collins is doing isn't looking to provide a monopoly so much as add another competitor to the oligopoly that internet service has become in the US