A Lawrence Lessig article on customer-owned networks. He uses examples from Boeing Corporation and the city government of Burlington, Vermont. Governments, corporations, and individuals (if they have sufficient funds) buying networks definitely has some benefits. No more worrying about Comcast being the only way to get onto the internet. The knowledge that a municipality could hire contractors to build such a network themselves could also work as an incentive to spur competition (if corporations are being too slow about providing access to certain areas). I hope more cities and counties do this.