Why Your Internet Only Has One Provider
Quality reviewed September 2026
- Grades
- Grades 9-12
- Time
- About two 50-minute class periods
- Includes
- 11 ready-to-teach files
- Format
- Word (.docx) · PowerPoint (.pptx)
- Slide deck
- Guided notes
- Guided notes teacher key
- Activity + answer key
- Quiz + answer key
- Exit ticket + answer key
- Teacher guide
- Teacher presentation notes
What students do
- Apply the four features of monopoly to local broadband ISPs and identify why roughly 30 percent of U.S. households have only one wired provider
- Explain why the sunk cost of laying fiber or cable, $1,200 to $2,500 per home, locks in local broadband monopolies
- Compare broadband prices in Chattanooga before and after the city's EPB Fiber network entered the market in 2010
- Write a Final Recommendation Memo to the FCC on whether municipal broadband should be allowed in every state
What it covers
- Why laying fiber or cable to every home is a sunk cost that discourages a second wired provider from ever entering
- The Chattanooga case, where the city-owned EPB Fiber network dropped average broadband prices from $89 to $58
- Why 19 states currently restrict or ban cities from building their own broadband networks
Learning targets
- Apply the four defining features of MONOPOLY from TK 22 (one seller, no close substitutes, high barriers to entry, price-maker firm) to LOCAL BROADBAND ISPs and identify why ~30 percent of U.S. households have only one wired provider
- Define NATURAL MONOPOLY, SUNK COST, and BARRIER TO ENTRY and explain why laying fiber or cable to every home is the central infrastructure cost that locks in local broadband monopolies
- Read three real charts (U.S. broadband competition distribution, price by competition level, and the Chattanooga municipal broadband case) and write a Final Recommendation Memo identifying what the FCC should do about local broadband monopolies and whether municipal broadband should be allowed in all states
Peek inside
The Local Broadband Reality
Roughly 30% of U.S. households have ONE wired provider
Roughly 50% have TWO (usually one cable + one telecom)
LOCAL MONOPOLY exists within a geographic area such as a zip code
The names: Comcast, Spectrum, AT&T, Verizon, Cox
The Local Broadband Reality
Roughly % of U.S. households have ONE wired provider.
Roughly 50% of households have providers (cable + telecom).
Combined: 80% have AT MOST wired choices.
Major U.S. ISP names: Comcast, Spectrum, AT&T, Verizon, .
Why This Happens
1. Alex starts with the core idea. Local broadband is the textbook case where ONE provider can serve every home at a LOWER cost than two competing providers could, because building duplicate cable to the same houses wastes resources - economists call this a .
Why this matters
Running fiber or cable to a single house costs $1,200 to $2,500, and that sunk cost is the entire reason most neighborhoods end up with exactly one wired internet option. Roughly 30 percent of U.S. households are stuck with that single choice without ever being told why.
Chattanooga makes the theory land: broadband prices there dropped from $89 to $58 once the city-owned EPB Fiber network entered the market in 2010. Deciding whether that result should be legal in the 19 states restricting municipal broadband is where students stop describing the monopoly and start arguing what should happen.
From one teacher to another
Students pay into this monopoly every month without realizing it, so I built the lesson around the household internet bill instead of an abstract industry. The Chattanooga case does the real work here because it gives students an actual before-and-after price when a city built its own network, not just a theory about what competition would do. By the end they're writing a real recommendation to the FCC, which forces them to pick a side on municipal broadband instead of just describing the problem.
Every file in this toolkit
-
Activity (Student)
Alex Torres hands students three FCC charts, the one-provider share, the monopoly price gap, and Chattanooga's price drop after EPB Fiber launched, before they argue for or against Title II and municipal broadband bans.
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Activity (Answer Key)
Answer key figures put the sunk cost of running cable at $1,200 to $2,500 a home, the monopoly markup at $30 a month, and Chattanooga's EPB Fiber drop from $89 to $58, then argue whether Title II price caps should follow.
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Exit Ticket (Student)
Three questions cite roughly what share of U.S. households have just one wired broadband option, name the central barrier keeping a second wired provider out of a market, and separate what a natural monopoly and a government-run network each describe. Students cite one lesson number and three terms.
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Exit Ticket (Answer Key)
About 30 percent is the single-provider share cited, the cost of running a wire to every house is the entry barrier, and a natural monopoly explaining the market differs from a government-built network naming the policy response. A reason, one lesson number, and three terms belong here.
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Guided Notes (Student)
Running cable or fiber out to a single home costs between $1,200 and $2,500, and each blank connects that sunk expense to why so many households nationwide end up with just one wired choice, before a real city's before-and-after prices get worked into the notes.
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Guided Notes (Teacher Key)
One city's numbers get completed, an $89 monthly price under the old monopoly in 2009 falling to $58 by 2012 once a municipal fiber network launched, then the notes total the cost of monopoly elsewhere at $360 a year more than a competitive market.
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Quiz (Student)
A natural monopoly and overbuilding get defined, then items name what FCC Form 477 tracks and use the Chattanooga case to ask what a city-owned fiber network did to the local broadband price.
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Quiz (Answer Key)
19 states get named as restricting municipal broadband, roughly 30 percent of homes stay stuck with a single wired option, and Chattanooga's price falls from $89 to $58 after EPB Fiber launches.
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Slides
A sunk cost of $1,200 to $2,500 to wire a single home is the reason close to 30 percent of households end up with just one internet option. Chattanooga's city owned network shows the fix, average bills fell from $89 down to $58, a case for the 19 states now banning municipal broadband.
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Teacher Guide
Chattanooga's broadband price drop from $89 to $58 sets up the closing discussion, and discussion prompts test that evidence against the pole attachment fees new entrants must pay incumbent utilities.
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Teacher Presentation Notes
Comcast Xfinity's roughly 32 million subscribers and Charter Spectrum's 30 million open the market-share numbers before the sunk-cost argument even starts. A caveat about FCC Form 477 census-block reporting suggests the true one-provider share runs higher than the 30 percent headline.
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