Michael Burcham

One of the key issues every entrepreneur grapples with is: What does it take to break into the market? No matter how great your product is, customers must have access. Of course, you also need to delight customers. And you may need to partner with other parties or get certain permissions, like a building permit.

But I can’t think of a successful business that depends on getting market incumbents’ permission in order to enter the market. Typically, incumbents are those least interested in innovation — why change and improve if you own the market? In fact, investors will laugh you out of the room if your success depends on getting your competitors’ permission first.

Unfortunately, that’s the state of affairs when it comes to deploying broadband internet service. It's a key reason why we don’t have more choice in broadband providers. And it’s what may hold Nashville’s consumers and entrepreneurs back from enjoying the benefits of a high-speed, 21st-century communications infrastructure, which is key to our growing economy.

Nashville’s Metro Council has been exploring an ordinance that would speed up deployment of Google Fiber and other new internet providers. This is because, right now, new providers like Google have to get the permission of AT&T, Comcast and other existing attachers in order to get onto the city’s tens of thousands of utility poles. This process takes a very long time, and the council’s proposed One Touch Make Ready ordinance would dramatically speed things up, while ensuring safety and respect for existing property.

It’s a complicated debate, but what you’ll find is that people generally fall into two camps. Those who support the ordinance and want to see more competition, more choice, more speed and more savings in the broadband space. And there are those who oppose it — namely, AT&T and Comcast — because they have some kind of stake in maintaining the status quo.

I’m personally proud of Nashville's record of being pro-consumer and pro-entrepreneurship. Over the past decade, we have worked hard to build an active entrepreneurial community here in Nashville, to create new jobs, new innovation and new opportunity — and it has paid off handsomely for our city. And we should build on that here with this ordinance.

Faster, more affordable speeds will drive innovation in Nashville. Take health care, where I’ve spent my career and an industry that already contributes nearly $30 billion and 210,000 jobs to the local economy. Real-time, high-quality videoconferencing and telemedicine are the next areas of innovation in health care. I personally want our city to be the nation’s leader in this space. It will create more economic opportunity and more value for consumers. But we need a reliable, high-speed infrastructure to achieve this goal.

Consumer choice, ultimately, is what’s most important about this topic — when there’s more competition, consumers win. As the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development found, one of the biggest impacts of Google’s deployment of new, blazing fast fiber networks is that it has encouraged other providers to invest more in their own infrastructure.

In fact, in markets where Google Fiber has entered, prices have dropped by $20 a month, while speeds have increased. Better internet is good for businesses too.

Take Kansas City, which has attracted over 100 startups since Google Fiber came to town. Similarly, our neighbors in Chattanooga have had more competition and ultrafast internet speeds for years, and the result has been a flowering of startups and thousands of jobs created.

Nashville cannot get left behind. Our residents deserve choice, and our businesses need a 21st-century infrastructure, so incumbents shouldn’t be allowed to act as gatekeepers to competition. If the incumbents are allowed to control the speed of innovation, there will be no innovation.

Michael Burcham is the CEO of Narus Health and the former CEO of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.