Despite growing interest in broadband provided by municipally owned and operated fiber-to-the-home networks, the academic literature has yet to undertake a systematic assessment of these projects' financial performance. To fill this gap, we utilize municipalities' official reports to offer an empirical evaluation of the financial performance of every municipal fiber project in the U.S. operating in 2010 through 2019. An analysis of the actual performance of the resulting fifteen-project panel dataset reveals that none of the projects generated sufficient nominal cash flow in the short run to maintain solvency without infusions of additional cash from outside sources or debt relief. Similarly, 87% have not actually generated sufficient nominal cash flow to put them on track to achieve long-run solvency. In addition, 73% generated negative nominal cash flow over the past three fiscal years, leaving them poorly positioned to make up their deficits and causing them to fall farther into debt. An assessment based on the net present value of these projects' operating cash flow indicates that 53% of projects would not be on track to breakeven even assuming the theoretical best-case performance in terms of capital expenditures and debt service. Close analysis of these projects’ performance reveals that revenue generation likely plays a more important role in generating cash flow than efficiency in construction costs or operating efficiency.

尽管人们对市政拥有和运营的光纤到户网络提供的宽带越来越感兴趣，但学术文献尚未对这些项目的财务业绩进行系统评估。为了填补这一空白，我们利用市政当局的官方报告对 2010 年至 2019 年在美国运营的每个市政光纤项目的财务绩效进行了实证评估。对由此产生的 15 个项目面板数据集的实际绩效分析表明：在没有从外部来源注入额外现金或减免债务的情况下，这些项目都没有在短期内产生足够的名义现金流来维持偿付能力。同样，87% 的企业实际上并没有产生足够的名义现金流来使其走上实现长期偿付能力的轨道。此外，73% 的企业在过去三个财年产生了负的名义现金流，使他们无法弥补赤字，并导致他们进一步陷入债务困境。基于这些项目运营现金流的净现值的评估表明，即使假设资本支出和偿债方面的理论最佳表现，53% 的项目也无法实现盈亏平衡。对这些项目绩效的仔细分析表明，与建设成本或运营效率的效率相比，创收在产生现金流方面可能发挥更重要的作用。运营现金流表明，即使假设资本支出和偿债方面的理论最佳情况，53% 的项目也无法实现盈亏平衡。对这些项目绩效的仔细分析表明，与建设成本或运营效率的效率相比，创收在产生现金流方面可能发挥更重要的作用。运营现金流表明，即使假设资本支出和偿债方面的理论最佳情况，53% 的项目也无法实现盈亏平衡。对这些项目绩效的仔细分析表明，与建设成本或运营效率的效率相比，创收在产生现金流方面可能发挥更重要的作用。