Colorado is one of 20 US states that impose limits on cities and towns seeking to build their own broadband networks. The Colorado restriction is less severe than ones in many other states, though. To offer Internet service, a city or town just has to pass a ballot question.

Seven counties and towns did just that during Tuesday's election, KUNC wrote:

As we reported earlier, the towns of Boulder, Cherry Hills Village, Red Cliff, Wray and Yuma were all seeking to override a 2005 state law that prohibits them from constructing or operating broadband or telecommunications infrastructure or services. That law, SB05-152 [.pdf], which was pushed by large telecommunications companies, can be overridden by a majority of voters. Rio Blanco and Yuma Counties also had similar measures on the ballot that would have the effect of allowing those counties to get in the broadband game. All of these overrides passed handily, with margins of 70 percent or more in favor of giving authority to local governments to improve broadband access.

This doesn't guarantee that the communities will create broadband networks, but it gives them the right to do so whenever they're ready.

Boulder, a city of more than 100,000 residents, has 100 miles of fiber installed, "but under most interpretations of state law, the city couldn't make that network available to the public unless voters gave the city an exemption," the Daily Camera reported. There are no concrete plans yet, and the city could partner with a private company rather than offering service on its own.

"It gets us going in the right direction, and it's exciting to get to use our fiber, which is just sitting there," Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum said, according to the report.

The Colorado law does have one exception: communities can build networks without a vote if private companies refuse to offer service. But if a private company is willing to offer any service at all, a vote is needed.

State laws that limit community broadband have come under fire at the Federal Communications Commission because they protect private cable and telecom companies from potential competition and limit residents' choices for broadband. The FCC is considering whether it can preempt state laws limiting municipal broadband and has received petitions from communities in Tennessee and North Carolina seeking authority to expand Internet service.

Laws in those states make it difficult or impossible for public networks to expand outside municipal limits. The communities aren't allowed to overturn the limits even with a ballot question and thus appealed to the FCC.