Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
1–10 of 53 posts
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#2No shit?
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#3Definitely hate TWC, but no other option.
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#4I once lived in a city with a community run fiber network. It was pretty damn amazing. They still have great rates for what you get: http://www.sfcn.org/sfcn/internet/
I paid about how much the "Plus" plan cost, without TV, just for 3Mps down/1Mps up in the next two places I lived. It really does spoil you when you've had a proper ISP compared with the TWC/Comcast/Cox monopolies that run in other locales.
Edit: and note, this was a tiny (less than 30k residents) at the time I had it. Incredible value for the service. I'm sure there's lots of happy customers there still.
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#5Wheeler is still a dingo.
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#6My community might get Google Fiber soon. I still am pretty excited about that, but the more I read about community fiber, the more torn I feel.
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#7I live in a small village (2,000 people) and would love to implement something like this but the costs, as mentioned in articles about communities that have done it, seem prohibitive in the extreme (many millions of dollars). The article talks about underserved rural communities but how in the world do such places afford this (aside from the wealthiest locales, anyway)?
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#8I live in a small village (2,000 people) and would love to implement something like this but the costs, as mentioned in articles about communities that have done it, seem prohibitive in the extreme (many millions of dollars). The article talks about underserved rural communities but how in the world do such places afford this (aside from the wealthiest locales, anyway)?
My understanding is they are heavily subsidized by federal/state grants, local community development loans, and tax breaks.
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#9I've thought the "open access" type model would work for a couple years now and I'm glad to see it being discussed here. Community Fiber may work in pro-active cities. However problems may reveal themselves in other cities when the politicians make campaign budget promises and usage statistics make some people angry they're paying for people who use more internet than they do. You can't expect every mayor of every small town in the US to understand enough about fiber equipment to make the right purchases for their local infrastructure.
The fundamental problem is the cost of the last mile infrastructure is too great to allow much competition. (Though existing companies have worked with lawmakers to further cement their position.) Open access would allow companies to compete with their service, knowledge, and connection to the internet at large, while reducing the cost of gaining you as a customer to plugging you in at the central hub.
At one point long ago our nation decided that broad communication networks which included every household benefited the whole enough that shouldering the upfront cost was far worth the rewards. We wired up every household with a copper line and access to phone service. Now that the internet has surpassed and commenced the phone we have forgotten the lessons of the past and are struggling along with "good enough" copper instead of again shouldering the cost and laying down fiber lines. It would cost a lot to reach rural areas and connect every last household. However fiber is great in that you can upgrade the equipment at the end to continue to increase speed, and in a country where websites can assume all of their potential customers would have very fast internet radical technological advancements could occur.
The technological advancements will occur in the end. The biggest question is whether or not the US will reap the rewards that it has been these last several decades, or if another country will. There is no faster way to irrelevance than doing nothing.
Re: Hate Your ISP? Maybe You Need Community Fiber
#10The sad thing is it is taking local community governments to compete with broadband 'providers'. You know you need some competition when local governments are the tip of innovation and your biggest competition. I hope many more communities and Google Fiber wake up the slumbering cable companies and telcos.