Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
arstechnica.com
Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
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Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#2I'm pretty proud of my hometown for passing this measure! Longmont, a town 30 miles south of Fort Collins, passed something similar a couple years ago, and it sounds like it's been pretty successful so far[1], so I'm excited to see where this goes.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15570559#up_15573817
Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#3This passed in Boulder county as well, pretty overwhelmingly.
Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#4how to encourage other cities to do the same? can colorado guide the rest of the cities and states to through similar initiatives?
Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#5how to encourage other cities to do the same? can colorado guide the rest of the cities and states to through similar initiatives?
If your town / city is less than 10k people simply going to city council open forum meetings (most places host those monthly or quarterly, some even weekly) and constantly hounding representatives about it being a problem with a straightforward solution (taxpayer funded public telecom operation in the city).
Probably the #1 problem is the ignorance of how bad the telecom monopoly is in the US, that there even are alternatives, and that this is the problem domain government needs to approach in the same way they approach electric access or roads.
Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#6Keep your powder dry, Coloradians. COMCAST is like some non-giving up cable guy who simply won't let citizens determine their own fate when there is oodles of money to be made from them instead. Prepare for them to come back through the rear door, bribing the legislature and congress to enact laws that restrict the practice just approved.
Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#7Whenever this happens - and it happens a lot - Comcast & Co just goes up a level to the state legislature and has them outlaw municipal broadband:
https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/08/28/15404/how-big-tel...
Can't they just do the same thing in Colorado?
Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#8how to encourage other cities to do the same? can colorado guide the rest of the cities and states to through similar initiatives?
It sounds like they're working on it. I like that there are a number of test cases, which will hopefully lead to a little variety in results, and maybe some good ideas regarding which techniques are more effective than others. Like any municipal service, there will be the potential for it to run smoothly and efficiently, and there will be the potential for it to turn into a massive clusterfuck and money pit. Where a particular city's implementation falls on that spectrum will be determined by their own choices.
Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#9Keep your powder dry, Coloradians. COMCAST is like some non-giving up cable guy who simply won't let citizens determine their own fate when there is oodles of money to be made from them instead. Prepare for them to come back through the rear door, bribing the legislature and congress to enact laws that restrict the practice just approved.
Maybe it's just me, but the right thing for Comcast to do is try to provide a better product. Competition is healthy, legislation is illness.
Re: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado
#10I'm pretty proud of my hometown for passing this measure! Longmont, a town 30 miles south of Fort Collins, passed something similar a couple years ago, and it sounds like it's been pretty successful so far[1], so I'm excited to see where this goes. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15570559#up_15573817
Do you happen to know where they hire people for working on this? Are they city or state employees, or are they using a bunch of contractors?
Edit: Hmm, looks like Fort Collins will use contractors for installs and hire 10 to 38 people over five years (p. 39 - Personnel Requirements): https://www.fcgov.com/broadband/pdf/7.27.17%20Broadband%20Bu...
However, this is excluding developers for things like customer portals. Maybe that will get contracted out as well.
Seems light to run an ISP, even for FC's size.