Obama calls for municipal broadband
1–10 of 289 posts
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#2Oh, municipal governments. From the headline, I though he was proposing some national thing.
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#3[deleted]
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#4Oh, municipal governments. From the headline, I though he was proposing some national thing.
Yeah, I went from "oh, no" to "oh... ok"
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#5Municipal broadband is a great idea. A town near me, Olds, just rolled out gigabit fiber to the curb for $57/mo.
Considering most of the other nearby municipalities have to live with dialup or (agonizingly slow) satellite internet, it's been a big draw to the area. I think it absolutely makes a ton of sense for rural areas; if I had a remote job it would be very tempting to head out there and get an acreage.
I feel like splitting it up and having municipalities responsible for their own infrastructure makes it easier for the common man to get involved, too. You can show up at city council and express an opinion or volunteering for a committee a lot easier than walking into a federal building and doing the same.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/small-alberta-town-gets-ma...
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#6Really, he's calling for the FCC to prevent rent-seeking by local ISP monopolies by allowing the option of municipal networks. It's a really good idea; you can tell because of how stridently Comcast/Verizon/AT&T oppose it.
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#7This seems great, but I fear what is may do to the small ISP's (which generally don't pull any of the shenanigans the BIG5 do and are usually pretty pleasant to work with).
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#8A lot of people seem dismayed that there isn't a bigger push for a federal run, country-wide internet provider, which I think is crazy. Taking the municipal approach means there isn't a huge cost for nationwide infrastructure, and small towns can develop the network that's right for them, rather than being stuck with what they're told they need from higher up. Additionally, with all the worry and fear about the NSA looking behind the scenes, putting the entire network backbone in the hands of the federal government is basically handing them exactly what they want. I'm all for municipally run internet, and hope this helps move towards that.
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#9Oh, municipal governments. From the headline, I though he was proposing some national thing.
Likewise. I was preparing to cringe, but municipal level utilities actually make sense. That scale is large enough to solve the inherent coordination problems, but small enough to be responsive to the preferences of the residents and subject to competition from nearby municipalities.
Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband
#10This seems great, but I fear what is may do to the small ISP's (which generally don't pull any of the shenanigans the BIG5 do and are usually pretty pleasant to work with).
I thought about this when I first started reading about municipal broadband, and I think if the local gov was required to wholesale out its' capacity the same way Title II utilities like AT&T have to now, small ISPs would be in a far better situation. AT&T is relatively hostile to the customers of other DSL providers, and I think municipal governments may be less likely to.
Datacenters are also a completely reasonable metaphor, you pay the facility to run most wiring for a cross-connect to an ISP or between cages / floors, but you can provide your own transit or buy transit from any number of providers, all of whom are just other customers.