Because the people over at Ars are pro, and constantly get their stories practically copy/pasted by the not-so-pro Neowin crowd, I'm going just going to provide a brief section and then link to the full article that's a million times more interesting.
Nate Anderson, Ars Technica Wrote:The saga began in 2007, when the town passed a referendum approving the city-owned fiber network. The city says that it had approached TDS and was told that no such system would be installed in town in the near future, so it went ahead with its own plans.
After the referendum, the city was sued by the telco just before groundbreaking began. The suit didn't seem to have much of a chance under Minnesota law, and indeed judges at multiple levels ruled for Monticello. But in the meantime, TDS rolled into town with nine crews of its own and began installingâyou guessed itâfiber to the home.
Monticello had just become one of the only US cities in which twin, parallel fiber networks were being built at the same time. Backers of the muni fiber plan were outraged; not only could TDS build a modern fiber network on a moment's notice when it wanted to do so, but the lawsuits prevented the city from doing much of its installation even as TDS moved ahead.
We spoke to TDS about the situation last year, and its director of legislative and public relations told us that TDS didn't act earlier because it didn't actually know that people really, really wanted fiber; once the referendum was a success, the company moved quickly to give people what it now knew they wanted.
It gets even better, so go read the full article and click on all the ads, because Ars Technica really is pro.
After you've finished reading the other half of that story, the real question is... How do we get the GDC to approve adding a fibre network in Gisborne?
Source: Ars Technica: Want 50Mbps Internet in your town? Threaten to roll out your own
Additional Info:
Source: Wikipedia: Monticello, MN