Access to and adoption of a municipal broadband middle-mile network: The case of the Community Access Network in Washington, D.C.

This study addresses the role that public investment and oversight played in the establishment of a high-profile middle mile network infrastructure project in Washington D.C., namely the District of Columbia-Community Access Network (DC-CAN). This paper utilizes a document/textual analysis technique to study the access to and the adoption of the DC-CAN. A number of factors impacting access to the DC-CAN are identified including: a lack of ISPs willing to provide last mile service and a highly concentrated market structure for broadband in the local market. In term of the adoption of the DC-CAN, the findings point to various successes such as meeting the proposal's goals for signing up enough community anchor institutions (CAIs) to participate in the DC-CAN. However, there were factors that limited the adoption of the DC-CAN such as onerous reselling/lease restrictions placed on the participants of the CAIs.