It's really ironic that the Comcasts of the world were probably hoping to get a free pass to do whatever they want, when in reality they will end up with different rules for each state increasing the cost of compliance.
Montana could also structure their rules such that any ISP with a connection terminating at a state government must apply their NN rules to any data transferred through the state while it is in-state, even if the source and destination are outside of the state.
When I think of Montana politics the first thing I remember is this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/2... For better or worse this makes me think of Montana as a pretty red state unlikely to pass regulation like NN.
Greg isn’t from Montana* and is about as far as you can get from the typical Montanan imho. Curiously though he is an actual hacker. *He’s a transplant like many who live here including me.
He's from New Jersey -- my alma mater (Stevens Tech) named a building after him; alumni basically rebelled and withheld donations until his name was removed.
He did win though, so while there may have been unusual circumstances suggested by other commenters - he had some support of the people of the state.
There were a lot of votes cast before the incident, so the outcome might have been different had the incident happened sooner.
This is the most salient point -- Montana has one of the largest, if not the largest, vote-by-mail operations in the US, so ballots were probably cast and posted a few days before the election.
There were a lot of votes cast before the incident, so the outcome might have been different had the incident happened sooner.
This is the most salient point -- Montana has one of the largest, if not the largest, vote-by-mail operations in the US, so ballots were probably cast and posted a few days before the election.
Oregon only uses the mail for voting so Montana isn't the largest.
Montana has an interesting history. There were stories that said that Montana statehood was delayed by 25 years due to support of the south during the civil war. Jeanette Rankin, the first female member of congress, was elected twice, in time to be the sole vote against entering WWI and WWII. She was a pacifist and a Progressive Republican. So while small in population, there might be more diversity of opinion than y…
Yes! And the history of far left labor movements like the IWW (“Wobblies”) in MT is interesting too. Butte, for example, has historically been very blue collar, socially conservative / Irish Catholic, and left wing in a “you can’t scare me, I’m sticking to the union” kind of way. Something like 13% of Missoula County voted Green Party in 2000. Way I see it, MT has a mix of hippy-left, labor left, and truly moderate r…
The US has forgotten just how rough those labor disputes were. I mean, for example, just how roughly treated striking workers were treated by company goon squads. Infamously, the Ludlow Massacre of 1913.
Bootstrappy conservative state rolls up sleeves and delivers municipal/coop Internet after being forsaken by for-profit corporation. The news story almost writes itself. I’m unable to find any financial issues with Montana’s budget, and their bond ratings appear to be adequate to receive a great interest rate in order to borrow for a build out.
The reason Montana is in the position they’re in is precisely because they don’t do stuff like that. Take a look at California, a state that implements just about every idea under the sun without a care in the world for the tax payers’ money (latest example is Hyperloop). Not coincidentally, California is also a state that is broke, crime riddled, filled with toxic waste and pollution, just about burned to the ground…
The states with the most violent crime? Alaska, Nevada, New Mexico, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, …. I'm not sure that your hypothesis checks out.
Bootstrappy conservative state rolls up sleeves and delivers municipal/coop Internet after being forsaken by for-profit corporation. The news story almost writes itself. I’m unable to find any financial issues with Montana’s budget, and their bond ratings appear to be adequate to receive a great interest rate in order to borrow for a build out.
Twenty one states have enacted laws against municipal broadband, including ... Montana. The FCC under Obama overturned these. Given broadband providers now are effectively getting their wish-list, it seems like these laws may come back in force. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkvn4x/the-21-law...
This is kind of interesting considering the state did provide broadband service from 2010-2014:
The Program was funded through the State Broadband Initiative (SBI) program, administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). It ran from Jan 1, 2010 through Dec 31, 2014.
I'm guessing the funding either ran out, or the program was discontinued due to cost?
If you're the Governor of Montana, it probably is the best that can be done. It's not a lot by itself, of course, but I'm not going to begrudge local and state officials from exercising what powers they do have to try and make the situation a bit better.
They could stop running as Republican candidates. Just an idea.
Do you mind not injecting partisan politics? Discussions tend to become instantly boring and/or hostile when we do so.
Greg isn’t from Montana* and is about as far as you can get from the typical Montanan imho. Curiously though he is an actual hacker. *He’s a transplant like many who live here including me.
He's from New Jersey -- my alma mater (Stevens Tech) named a building after him; alumni basically rebelled and withheld donations until his name was removed.
Haha wow, well sorry to burst your bubble but he essentially succeeded at the same goal at MSU.
Good to hear, since the FCC was so loud about a handful of small ISPs like yours being vaguely against the Title II rules.
Title II != net neutrality. Title II is a highly bureaucratic strong-oversight-in-all-things tool aimed at a completely different problem space, namely providing a legislative solution to the case-law-derived 1980s consent decrees with AT&T & IBM. It covers things that have nothing to do with what ISPs want to deal with as part of their businesses, and places the expensive burden of proof and compliance on the ISP. S…
> You'd never see another small ISP formed again.
Except the FCC was only enforcing the NN part of it.