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2 questions: 1. Why aren't cities everywhere doing this? 2. Who do I have to bother in my city to get this to happen?
> Chattanooga has the largest high-speed internet service in the US, offering customers access to speeds of 1 gigabit per second – about 50 times faster than the US average. The service, provided by municipally owned EPB, has sparked a tech boom in the city and attracted international attention. EPB is now petitioning the FCC to expand its territory. Comcast and others have previously sued unsuccessfully to stop EPB’…
I remember the day in US when the consumer was king, and its interests were second to all others (govt, big business, etc). Sadly that day has passed. Without getting too political, the root cause is unrestrained campaign giving.
2 questions: 1. Why aren't cities everywhere doing this? 2. Who do I have to bother in my city to get this to happen?
I remember the day in US when the consumer was king, and its interests were second to all others (govt, big business, etc). Sadly that day has passed. Without getting too political, the root cause is unrestrained campaign giving.
2 questions: 1. Why aren't cities everywhere doing this? 2. Who do I have to bother in my city to get this to happen?
it may already be too late for your city. often when cable companies wire up a town, they offer free access to gov and school buildings in return for exclusive development rights. no one can compete with them, including the town itself.
However, they refuse to provide broadband access to the entire county. It is quite frustrating.
My opinion of those companies is so poor at this point that my knee jerk reaction is to assume that whatever they want is the opposite of what's good for me.
Counterpoint: try googling "Volstate EPB". I'm no expert, but I think it would be a shame if small struggling ISPs get the short end of the stick. It's hard for me to make a judgement on this specifically.
It kind of sucks for companies like that, but competition is good.
In an ideal situation you'd have "the people" own the pipes which they then rent at cost to commercial providers. In practice this would usually be via local government, but I'd prefer it via some kind of mutual society (where residents own a share, is open only to residents, and which is sold along with the property).
The UK has a variation of this model, called "local loop unbundling" (http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/llu/llu.do). The infra was originally built by the state telco BT, which was then privatized. To create competition they introduced LLU, which forced BT to allow competition access to the pipes.
These companies do the country and its inhabitants a big disservice. I think the only reasonable option for the FCC and the government would be to increase competition, and remove existing roadblocks.