Businessweek Archives  A Collision On The Iowa I Way  News:
Analysis & Commentary: THE INTERNET   A state telecom network
for schools slams into Big Business  It was billed as an
investment in the information revolution and a landmark strategy
for economic development. Seven years ago, Iowa Governor Terry
E. Branstad won support for construction of the nation's only
statewide, publicly funded fiber-optic telecom system. Now the
$300 million Iowa Communications Network is delivering much of
what Branstad promised. Kids in rural areas can videoconference
into Russian language classes with a professor in Des Moines.
Students and teachers get zippy Internet connections and cheap
school-to-school long-distance phone service.  Yet not all is
well in the heartland's cyberstate. Telephone companies and
Internet service providers gripe that the government-subsidized
network threatens to swipe their customers. State legislators
agree, and in April, they voted to limit new access to the
network. Branstad vetoed that mea