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Obama calls for municipal broadband

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Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#31

Post by justizin »

debacle wrote: post #12
ayuvar wrote: post #5

Municipal 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 l…

> to the curb for $57/mo. What's the setup fee to run fiber 100 feet and into your house to set up the box? Because Verizon did it for free. I still think private competition is better here. Verizon only did it for free because they're trying to tread on Time Warner, which is the way it should be.

I think that the city should offer minimal service / support, and that there is opportunity for small or other businesses to buy and resell capacity wholesale, including a more full service install process.

Local power monopolies in many areas, at least, have to provide options for alternate power sources. Existing regulated telco monopolies have to let other providers use their infrastructure.

I think municipalities should be able to play that role, or to deem it a function of the city / county and contract out for it, letting private players compete in a market with a guaranteed baseline service.

Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#32

Post by justizin »

ayuvar wrote: post #5

Municipal 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 l…

I agree with making it possible for the common person to get involved, as well.

The problem with current Title II negotiations is that they still only involve top-level government officials and corporate execs. I'm afraid of making the rules too vindictive, but that doesn't mean I don't think what's currently happening is shady.

Why try to solve the internet forever in one fell swoop? Any such effort is almost certainly doomed to fail.

Municipalities sharing what does and does not work over time, and spreading working ideas to new places like wildfire is more like open-source, more agile, and more anarchist, though that's probably not a selling point for most people worded as such. ;)

Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#33

Post by rev_bird »

jfb wrote: post #30
NoPiece wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think the federal policy on torrents will be? Ask Disney.

Who cares? The Feds here are not in the business of bandwidth provision; they're acting to counterbalance the elephantine mass of Comcast by preventing them from overpowering municipal politics.

I think the idea was that if Disney can get the government to essentially destroy the idea of 20th century work entering the public domain, they could probably get the government to act against an open internet.

Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#34

Post by anigbrowl »

mtrpcic wrote: post #8

A 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 l…

small towns can develop the network that's right for them

What does that even mean? Do people in Smallville use the internet differently or not like to their video to buffer too fast? A mishmash of half-assed local standards was how the road network used to be, until Dwight Eisenhower came to power and argued that the US deserved something better than the miserably inefficient network it had, and championed the development of the Federal Highway System.

I'm not being sarcastic here: I really want to know what you mean by 'the network that's right for them.' Are inferior networks right for poorer towns? Should there be different network standards in different states? I presume you like the way that telephone service is uniform across the whole US, so that making a call is procedurally identical whether you're in Alaska or the Florida panhandle. What positive advantage do you see in having internet accessibility be inconsistent? I recognize that you regard the capital cost of a national network as a disadvantage, but I don't see a clear benefit to your proposal. If you're all for municipally run internet, does that mean you do favor national regulation forbidding local monopolies or strategic litigation designed to prevent municipalities from setting up their own networks, as proposed in some states?

Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#35

Post by lukeschlather »

debacle wrote: post #12
ayuvar wrote: post #5

Municipal 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 l…

> to the curb for $57/mo. What's the setup fee to run fiber 100 feet and into your house to set up the box? Because Verizon did it for free. I still think private competition is better here. Verizon only did it for free because they're trying to tread on Time Warner, which is the way it should be.

Comparable Verizon service appears to cost between $200-$400 a month (though it's available almost nowhere.) At that price you can bet they'll waive a $100 installation fee.

Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#36

Post by jrochkind1 »

Torgo wrote: post #27
nostromo wrote: post #11

Municipal governments are a big part of the problem. They make it nearly impossible for companies to build new ISPs. Municipal governments: the cause of, and solution to, your ISP woes. It reminds me of housing. 1) Governments restrict new housing. 2) Housing becomes unaffordable. 3) Government builds public housing because "the free market has failed."

Ten years ago my hometown built a municipal ISP. It since then has done the bare minimum to keep the network going, and is total crap. There is one other cable ISP, but they effectively have to compete with the terrible speeds and service of the muni, which conspires to improve nothing. State laws preventing municipal ISPs should be gotten rid of, but some people seem to think that a municipal ISP will solve all thei…

> but they effectively have to compete with the terrible speeds and service of the muni, which conspires to improve nothing

Wait, shouldn't that be easy for them to compete with, then? You say it like terrible speeds and service are somehow challenging competition for the cable company? Of course, they would prefer no competition at all, as all companies would.

Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#38

Post by metaphorm »

sp332 wrote: post #2

Oh, municipal governments. From the headline, I though he was proposing some national thing.

the united states is a federal republic. municipal government is SUPPOSED to be the level of government where programs like this are implemented. communities will have varying needs and their local governments are best equipped to evaluate and meet those needs.

Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#39

Post by Arnor »

> Last year, the Republican-controlled House passed language banning the FCC from banning states from banning cities from building municipal networks.

This should be a case study in every civics class...

Re: Obama calls for municipal broadband

#40

Post by cubano »

metaphorm wrote: post #13

I wish we had seen this more progressive, pro-active Obama 6 years ago. Squandered his political capital on a shitty health care reform bill, got shell shocked by Republican opposition and crawled up his own ass for a couple of years. Now that he doesn't give a shit about elections anymore he's actually doing something.

I wish we had seen this more progressive, pro-active Obama 6 years ago.

More progressive and pro-active then basically socializing 1/7th of the US economy with the ACA?

Wow.

[edit] I used the wrong term "socializing" when I meant "intervening in"

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