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Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

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Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#51

Post by pottertheotter »

llsf wrote: post #25

Would it make sense for the municipality to own the pipes that run in the city ? Like some cities own the sewer pipes. Could it be an infrastructure that the city builds, owns, maintains and rents to ISP ? The city would have a full control on how many houses are connected. That is the type of investments that a city is suited for (i.e. large upfront cost financed by bonds). AT&T, Charter, Comcast, they have no incen…

It's what happens in a lot of places with open access networks. And it's what we do with a lot of infrastructure, such a streets.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#52

Post by OnACoffeeBreak »

I wish ARSTechnica would pick up this story and do a deep dive. They have done an amazing job keeping up with all of the shenanigans that incumbent telcos pulled in the case of the town/city of Wilson in North Carolina back in the day rolling out their Greenlight fiber muni broadband network:

- https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/11/the-price-of-mun...

- https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/03/cable-backed-ant...

- https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/02/fcc-o...

- https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/muni-...

- https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/10/city-...

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#54

Post by sangnoir »

CSMastermind wrote: post #47
jrgifford wrote: post #16

It'll be interesting to see if they can do this better than previous attempts. I remember in 2009 when OneCommunity tried[1], 2014 when OneCommunity launched everstream, their for-profit arm (and didn't change much)[2], or the 2018 Old Brooklyn/Ward 13 project[3]. Somewhere in there, there was an initiative (probably 2009 or so?) that included public wifi in Cleveland Heights along much of Cedar Road, where One Commu…

My buddy was at Case Western back in 2007/8ish and worked on that One Community project. He called it 'porn for the poor'. There were all these utopian ideas getting floated about how revolutionary the idea was and that basically lack of high speed internet access was the only thing keeping all these people in poverty. If we just gave the poor fast internet access as a public service then they would all learn to code…

Maybe puritans would have objected to the poor using the internet to get their rocks off in 2007. However, in 2023 - I cannot imagine anyone applying for a job without using the internet in some fashion. Could one discover job openings in a newspaper and mail their resume by post and wait for a phone call? Perhaps, but even McJobs have QR codes now.

I have no doubt that anyone in the US who doesn't have internet access is severely disadvantaged on the job market (or even accessing Khan academy). Yes, they may use most of the bandwidth for entertainment,but gatekeeping what poor people should do with their resources seems a tad paternalistic, this includes policing what should be in the shopping baskets of SNAP beneficiaries.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#55

Post by p1mrx »

sxg wrote: post #33

I just moved back to Cleveland, and I signed up for Cleveland Broadband (clevelandbroadband.com), which is incredible! I pay $50/mo for 1 Gb/s download and upload speeds with no contract or temporary introductory pricing. The best part is the customer service, which I've only had to use twice while initially setting it up, but it's a direct line to a person who physically came to my place within an hour and was super…

Do they provide an IPv4 address or CGNAT? An IPv6 prefix or sadface?

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#56

Post by p1mrx »

llsf wrote: post #25

Would it make sense for the municipality to own the pipes that run in the city ? Like some cities own the sewer pipes. Could it be an infrastructure that the city builds, owns, maintains and rents to ISP ? The city would have a full control on how many houses are connected. That is the type of investments that a city is suited for (i.e. large upfront cost financed by bonds). AT&T, Charter, Comcast, they have no incen…

Ideally the municipality should provide a "dumb pipe" to a point of presence, where the customer chooses an ISP. That way the municipality doesn't have to deal with IPv4/IPv6 addressing, or DMCA notices.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#57

Post by parineum »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #46
parineum wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why you'd be railing against the company here for acting in it's best interest (exactly as you'd expect) rather than the state for giving away money with no strings attached. A private business sure as hell wouldn't be so foolish as to sign such a contract.

One can blame both parties. It was foolish (or corrupt, take your pick I guess) for the government to give out money without formal strings attached. It is unethical for the companies to take that money knowing it's intended for $thing, without ever intending to do $thing. Neither is good.

This is a classic example of the scorpion and the frog though.

The government is ostensibly giving them money and saying, "We hope you choose to do the thing we want with this money but you don't have to, no pressure."

Exactly what you'd expect happened, they took the money and did nothing. I honestly have a hard time finding that nearly as unethical as the government being incredibly irresponsible with our money, either through naivety or corruption.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#58

Post by atdrummond »

Really frustrating that this article focuses so much on the partisan attacks in the back half.

When I lead the (successful) effort to build a city wide FTTH network in Quincy, IL, our most fervent supporters were all Republicans. We got far more support from the IL GOP than the IL Democratic Party. (The former helped us, at the federal level, secure additional funding for the local telco coop that runs Adams County’s fiber lines.) Despite this, I wouldn’t promote our success as the story of one party beating another and it really diminishes the hard work of people from both sides of the political divide.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#60

Post by Fauntleroy »

parineum wrote: post #22
nerdponx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine that: company gets free money from the government to do such-and-such thing but isn't strictly required to do it, then they take the free money and don't do the thing. It's almost like corporations are self-interested and un-altruistic.

I don't know why you'd be railing against the company here for acting in it's best interest (exactly as you'd expect) rather than the state for giving away money with no strings attached. A private business sure as hell wouldn't be so foolish as to sign such a contract.

It's not mandatory to lick the corporate boots stepping on us, you know.
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