Kahoka’s Municipal Network Outpaced
The small city of Kahoka, Missouri took an unconventional step to secure connectivity for its residents. When the town’s only cable operator folded in the 1980s, Kahoka purchased the defunct system to keep basic television service available locally. Over time, the city expanded its offerings by adding internet packages as demand grew, positioning the municipal network as a locally controlled alternative to private providers. For a city of barely 2,000 people, owning and operating a communications utility was a bold experiment in self-reliance.
But the same system that once symbolized local initiative became a liability. The network was never designed to deliver the high speeds households and businesses came to expect by the 2010s. The city couldn’t offer such services without rebuilding the entire system, a project far beyond what Kahoka could realistically afford. Staffing was another issue; the city struggled to maintain cable technicians necessary for the basic maintenance of the network.
Rather than sink limited resources into a full-scale rebuild, city leaders chose a different route. In 2018, after outreach to nearby communities and service providers, Kahoka negotiated a deal with Mid-Atlantic Broadband, a Virginia-based company already expanding in Missouri. Under the agreement, Mid-Atlantic would acquire the city’s network and invest in upgrading it to fiber, with residents projected to see service of up to 1 Gbps within six to eight months of the deal’s closing.
Kahoka’s experience illustrates the pitfalls of municipal broadband. While early public ownership ensured essential connectivity, sustaining and modernizing telecom infrastructure requires significant technical support and capital investment. When those demands exceed a municipality’s capacity, turning to the private sector can offer a pragmatic path forward to meet those needs. In this case, selling the network positioned the city’s residents and business to benefit from next-generation fiber service that the city could not have delivered alone.
Amina Cecunjanin-Music is a 3L at New York Law School.