In "many", yeah, but that's more a product of market forces than anything else. I happen to have negotiated one of these contracts from the municipal side, and we didn't have a monopoly, we played the companies against each other, because we were an attractive enough market to do so.
You're proposing more state/federal oversight to insure that municipalities don't give away monopoly rights?
What recourse do your constituents have if they have different criteria for picking an ISP than you did? Why remove the "market forces" in the first place?
Typically, monopolies are granted in exchange for running service to unprofitable customers, anyone who wouldn't normally be connected. So those consumers are pretty undeniably better off. If there isn't something like that in the offing, competent town leadership would presumably use their attractive market position to make cable companies compete to provide service.
