Note: Updated with comment from Mediacom about Gov. Terry Branstad’s initiative to expand broadband services in rural areas. 

President Barack Obama’s call for government-sponsored Internet connectivity failed to connect with Mediacom Communications Corp.

During an event Wednesday in Cedar Falls, Obama announced executive actions to expand high-speed Internet access and make it more affordable, including an effort to spur the creation of municipal broadband networks that could challenge the nation’s large telecommunications companies, The New York Times reported. 

The event was held at Cedar Falls Utilities, “a municipal utility that leverages its government-conferred monopoly over electric, water and gas service to unfairly compete with private enterprises for cable television and high-speed Internet customers,” according to a release from Mediacom. “The president’s remarks combined with the selection of CFU as the venue for his speech clearly show that the White House wants to waste taxpayer dollars to supplant our nation’s private-sector broadband providers with government-owned utility companies.”

Mediacom did not stand alone in its criticism of the president’s proposal.

This quote from the Times’ coverage of Obama’s speech might give one reason why he received a steely response.

“In too many places across America, some big companies are doing everything they can to keep out competitors,” Obama said.  “We’ve got to change that – enough’s enough.”

Pointing to Cedar Falls as the “guinea pig” for unfettered expansion of broadband service, Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to override state laws that keep communities from providing high-speed Internet, Obama said.

The telecommunications industry also is opposed to Obama’s proposal that the FCC regulate the Internet as a public utility.

Mediacom’s founder and CEO Rocco Commisso said in a release: “I am a strong believer in our free market system, both as a matter of principle and because, as an entrepreneur, I know firsthand that there is no better way of furthering the economic well-being of American citizens. I started Mediacom in 1995 because I believed the residents of small and midsized communities deserved to have access to advanced telecommunications services second to none, and I risked my own life savings and raised billions more of private capital in order to act on that belief.” Read the release

Iowa cities served by Mediacom include Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and the Quad Cities.

Earlier this week, Gov. Terry Branstad proposed a 100 percent property tax break for companies that extend broadband services to rural parts of the state.

Medicom’s Tom Larsen said the company was generally supportive of Branstad’s proposal, primarily because it used tax incentives to spur private development of broadband in areas that have little if any Internet service.