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Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

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Re: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

#13
post #8

I hope this works - I'm sure plenty of people in Manchester would be prepared to get rid of their existing provider if this succeeds elsewhere in the county.

Mm resurrect Poptel then :-) For you younguns Poptel was a cooperative and an early ISP in the UK.

If there's a place for co-operative energy, there's a place for co-operative ISPs... the idealist in me really wants to see that.

Re: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

#14
Can we also get something like this going in urban and suburban areas where cable/dsl ISP's underserve and overcharge for their broadband internet. Let's just take these government-backed monopolist corporations out of the loop entirely and treat internet communcations the same way as municipal electrical lines, sewers, and roads.

Re: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

#15

Can we also get something like this going in urban and suburban areas where cable/dsl ISP's underserve and overcharge for their broadband internet. Let's just take these government-backed monopolist corporations out of the loop entirely and treat internet communcations the same way as municipal electrical lines, sewers, and roads.

Twenty years later....

Can we get private enterprise to take this broadband service out of the hands of this stupid, inefficient, underperforming, lowest-bidder government monopoly? Private enterprise can do it so much better! Capitalism! Why do my property taxes keep rising and my broadband isn't getting any faster?!?

Re: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

#16

Can we also get something like this going in urban and suburban areas where cable/dsl ISP's underserve and overcharge for their broadband internet. Let's just take these government-backed monopolist corporations out of the loop entirely and treat internet communcations the same way as municipal electrical lines, sewers, and roads.

It's kind of tough to just start digging in the city. You'll probably hit an existing pipe / line. Permits, etc..

Re: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

#17

Can we also get something like this going in urban and suburban areas where cable/dsl ISP's underserve and overcharge for their broadband internet. Let's just take these government-backed monopolist corporations out of the loop entirely and treat internet communcations the same way as municipal electrical lines, sewers, and roads.

Twenty years later.... Can we get private enterprise to take this broadband service out of the hands of this stupid, inefficient, underperforming, lowest-bidder government monopoly? Private enterprise can do it so much better! Capitalism! Why do my property taxes keep rising and my broadband isn't getting any faster?!?

Except you don't typically hear that about public utilities. Have you ever heard someone argue that their sewers should be sold to private corporations to operate because that would be cheaper?

    Private enterprise can do it so much better! Capitalism!
    Why do my property taxes keep rising and my broadband
    isn't getting any faster?!?
But my cable internet bill already does go up every few months without any improvement to my bandwidth cap, or speed.

Re: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twenty years later.... Can we get private enterprise to take this broadband service out of the hands of this stupid, inefficient, underperforming, lowest-bidder government monopoly? Private enterprise can do it so much better! Capitalism! Why do my property taxes keep rising and my broadband isn't getting any faster?!?

Except you don't typically hear that about public utilities. Have you ever heard someone argue that their sewers should be sold to private corporations to operate because that would be cheaper? Private enterprise can do it so much better! Capitalism! Why do my property taxes keep rising and my broadband isn't getting any faster?!? But my cable internet bill already does go up every few months without any improvement…

In South Africa we have a government-run telco monopoly. We also have some of the shittiest, most expensive internet in the world.

At least with private enterprise you can choose the least bad option.

Re: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

#19
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you don't typically hear that about public utilities. Have you ever heard someone argue that their sewers should be sold to private corporations to operate because that would be cheaper? Private enterprise can do it so much better! Capitalism! Why do my property taxes keep rising and my broadband isn't getting any faster?!? But my cable internet bill already does go up every few months without any improvement…

In South Africa we have a government-run telco monopoly. We also have some of the shittiest, most expensive internet in the world. At least with private enterprise you can choose the least bad option.

Well, not usually in the US. The big internet providers usually section off areas, and they don't compete. So we get the worst of both worlds - a private (ie, unaccountable) monopoly.

Re: Forgotten by the Future, Some Take the Internet Into Their Own Hands

#20
post #7

Very interesting to see. I had no idea there were so many community-owned providers. That begs the question: Would community providers do deep-packet inspection and send out copyright notices like the big telcos do? Or would they, as community-owned enterprises, be more dumb-pipe-ish? If so, maybe fighting anti-community-telco laws is the place to look for helping secure internet freedom in the future.

IANAL, but it seems to me that government-owned networks would be required to adhere to the Fourth Amendment.
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