Tennessee Senate candidates spar over broadband

The Tennessee Valley Authority helped deliver electricity to large parts of the Southeast United States starting in the 1930s. Could it also be part of moving rural Tennessee into the internet age?  Phil Bredesen, former governor of Tennessee and now Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, says TVA could do just that. TVA, which was one of FDR’s first New Deal programs, generates electricity and transmits the power wholesale to local utilities, which handle the last mile. The agency has a larger public purpose of encouraging rural development, Bredesen said, though that focus has waned over the years. Tapping that tradition could position TVA to deliver a new essential utility, broadband, Bredesen said. Bredesen’s Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, also puts broadband high on the list of campaign issues. She prefers private sector approaches and the use of utility cooperatives, which have increased flexibility to provide broadband under new state law. Blackburn said public broadband programs are anti-competitive.