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Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

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Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#171

Post by thaumasiotes »

smt88 wrote: post #74
dfsegoat wrote: post #54

Nitpicking title: 'Town' vs. 'City', bugs me as a former CO resident. Ft. Collins is huge (~170k people compared to most CO towns which are 400-10k ppl). The title sort of leads you to believe it was a folksy, rural community effort. In reality Intel, AMD, Broadcom and a major State University are located there and that probably helped the effort substantially. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Collins,_Colorado#Maj…

I looked into this, and Ft. Collins is a "Home Rule Municipality" under state law, meaning it can name itself either a town or city. It seems to have chosen to be a city, so you're right. Around the world, it seems that there's one consistent criterion for something being a city: it must have self-rule and a certain amount of government structure. Some places (notably not the US) have population requirements, but tho…

> it seems that there's one consistent criterion for something being a city: it must have self-rule and a certain amount of government structure.

What do you mean by self-rule? Singapore is autonomous, but that's definitely not the norm for cities. Almost all of them belong to larger states.

No US city has self-rule even at the level below the federal government. Washington, DC comes closest, but it is technically ruled directly by the federal government (in a manner that is not true for cities that belong to states). China has four "province-level" cities, but is generally accepted to have many more than four cities.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#172

Post by justwalt »

Donald wrote: post #10

As a FoCo resident, Comcast sent me an email saying that they're "upgrading our network" and "increasing your Internet download speed". Not really clear what that means until I see an updated rate sheet. I'm sure this is entirely a coincidence and has nothing to do with the fact that they suddenly have some competition now.

Same thing for me. Went from 150 down to 175 down, upload unchanged. I’m only paying $40, though, so I’m not sure I’d upgrade to $60 fiber if I had the option. Might be worth doing on principle, considering how spotty the connection can be sometimes.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#173

Post by tehlike »

post_break wrote: post #87

ATT brought 1gig fiber to my neighborhood (probably because I'm in NASA's backyard). I have gig symmetrical unlimited for $70 a month. Comcast of course tries to offer the same but with cable and you and I both know it wont be symmetrical, or anywhere close to the speed you pay for. It's funny how quickly Comcast will bend when there is a competitor in the area. Just down the street where there is no fiber they will…

A few months back, i switched to att fiber for 70$, and called comcast to cancel it. They said they will match the price, and that my att installation has 30 day free cancellation period and i should really take that. Give it to me for 35, then i would consider.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#175

Post by rtkwe »

microcolonel wrote: post #58

As somebody who really dislikes the idea of being forced to subsidize a municipal network, I like that they have some success. The cost of competing with Comcast should not be so great that people find this necessary.

Democracy, if you don't like it vote for people against it and if it wins still that's the breaks sometimes. Some things work better with collective action than private enterprise especially things that require large build outs of infrastructure that you don't want duplicated: eg roads, you're paying to maintain a lot of roads you never drive on because their existence benefits everyone.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#176

Post by ilikehurdles »

rb808 wrote: post #161
move-on-by wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you understand how limited 5G is. The range is basically the same has your home WiFi router. Without a fiber infrastructure to back it, 5G is nothing. If the city is no longer able to sell direct internet, then it will just sell/rent the infrastructure to whatever to 5G provider there is.

I brought up the 5G as an example of something that could change in the future. The problem is no one knows what is going to happen in 10-20 years. Its easy to spend public resources and have a great cheap service, maintaining this for decades is a different problem and it'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

How is that different from the infrastructure the private industry (allegedly) maintains?

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#177

Post by icebraining »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #156
polpo wrote: post #124

Longmont, just south of Fort Collins, was the first city in Colorado to build out a municipal ISP, and it’s inspired surrounding cities to do the same. It’s where I live and it was a not-insignificant reason why I chose to move here. So far it has been a resounding success for the city. The buildout completed on time and adoption rates are higher than initially expected (the city planned for 37% but the last number I…

“And I know my $50/mo rate will never rise.” Let’s hope they tie it to inflation or similar. Otherwise the system will die slowly due to underfunding.

Well, they can presumably offer 1Gbps for $50/mo indefinitely.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#178

Post by martin_a »

chopin wrote: post #36
martin_a wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Es ist einfach eine Frage der Höflichkeit, dass wir in der "Quasi-Weltsprache" Englisch kommunizieren. Ich denke das trägt im Internet allgemein zum Verständnis bei und sollte dementsprechend auch hier zum guten Ton gehören. Ob man es in irgendwelche Regeln schreiben muss weiß ich nicht, ich dachte ich kann ja trotzdem mal danach fragen. Better this way?

Im letzten deutschen Satz fehlt ein Komma.

Oh come on. :-D

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#179

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

zer0faith wrote: post #106

ya know... it's past time that they declare internet access a utility (like water, power, electricity) and tell garbage companies like Comcast to shove it.

Will never happen as long as "Government bad!" is the predominant thinking in our culture.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#180

Post by rackad »

smt88 wrote: post #74
dfsegoat wrote: post #54

Nitpicking title: 'Town' vs. 'City', bugs me as a former CO resident. Ft. Collins is huge (~170k people compared to most CO towns which are 400-10k ppl). The title sort of leads you to believe it was a folksy, rural community effort. In reality Intel, AMD, Broadcom and a major State University are located there and that probably helped the effort substantially. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Collins,_Colorado#Maj…

I looked into this, and Ft. Collins is a "Home Rule Municipality" under state law, meaning it can name itself either a town or city. It seems to have chosen to be a city, so you're right. Around the world, it seems that there's one consistent criterion for something being a city: it must have self-rule and a certain amount of government structure. Some places (notably not the US) have population requirements, but tho…

When internet speed is involved, does it make a difference if it is a city or a town? As far as I see, a service is a server, no matter where you are located.
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