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Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

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Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#181

Post by gshubert17 »

Donald wrote: post #10

As a FoCo resident, Comcast sent me an email saying that they're "upgrading our network" and "increasing your Internet download speed". Not really clear what that means until I see an updated rate sheet. I'm sure this is entirely a coincidence and has nothing to do with the fact that they suddenly have some competition now.

I lived in Fort Collins and had Comcast from 2005 through 2016. Over that time, Comcast did improve its download speeds from 3 to 25 Mbit/sec over that period, for the same tier of service, "Performance Internet".

Since then I've lived on a farm outside Boulder, Colorado, with internet from Comcast. Here, the download speed of their "Performance Pro" tier has increased from 60 to 150 Mbit/sec, and will increase again to 175 soon. Also, Comcast has been good about fixing service problems, replacing the coax from their utility poles to the premises when I experienced loss of signal issues.

> I'm sure this is entirely a coincidence and has nothing to do with the fact that they suddenly have some competition now.

Yes, between Century Link putting in Gigabit fiber and Boulder's moves toward their own municipal internet, Comcast is likely feeling enough competition to keep making technical improvements.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#182

Post by dantillberg »

torwayburger wrote: post #147
longcommonname wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres still locations here that can't get fiber. The local hospital is owned by a church and they own apartments adjacent to the hospital. These apartments are surrounded by others that get fiber but the map still shows they aren't planned.

If there is some geographical last mile type issue to bring internet to these buildings that are surrounded by fiber, it could be helpful to pitch the church/hospital with a wireless link from one of the fiber pops. I have brought service to medical and hospital buildings in this way before and it's always worked out well.

In the case described above, the topography is "completely flat", and the internet provider in question already provides electrical service to the premises.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#183

Post by AngeloAnolin »

I wonder if it is a well established knowledge that ISPs are a profitable business model, why is it that local governments take the cudgels of offering their constituents? Are there legal restrictions in place that would prevent government organizations from doing so? Or is it more on the technical perspective on why this is not being explored?

I see that public services at some point would include providing internet access as something vital alongside use of technology for services.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#184

Post by virgilp »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #156
polpo wrote: post #124

Longmont, just south of Fort Collins, was the first city in Colorado to build out a municipal ISP, and it’s inspired surrounding cities to do the same. It’s where I live and it was a not-insignificant reason why I chose to move here. So far it has been a resounding success for the city. The buildout completed on time and adoption rates are higher than initially expected (the city planned for 37% but the last number I…

“And I know my $50/mo rate will never rise.” Let’s hope they tie it to inflation or similar. Otherwise the system will die slowly due to underfunding.

Well, Romania is known for cheap internet prices, but for reference, here the largest _private_ operator is offering 1Gbps for $9.33/mo, taxes included (19% VAT).

I kinda' doubt that $50/mo is really unsustainable, especially once the infrastructure is already built.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#185

Post by samstave »

dantillberg wrote: post #169
longcommonname wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres still locations here that can't get fiber. The local hospital is owned by a church and they own apartments adjacent to the hospital. These apartments are surrounded by others that get fiber but the map still shows they aren't planned.

If you can't get municipal fiber where you live in Longmont (I'm a resident; hi!), you should most likely be complaining to your landlord, not the city. If you're not sure, call up Longmont Power & Communications and ask them what's up. There are a few apartment complexes around Longmont that have resisted integration with the city's fiber network. My understanding is that the city has negotiated with each of them ov…

Get a neighbor and a few dollars and broadcast that connection as a wisp via ubnt equipment.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#186

Post by zdragnar »

gambiting wrote: post #86
mrep wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't 5G solve that problem? Lay fiber to a bunch of 5G nodes and then you can service hundreds of customers who only need to install a wireless modem to get fiber speeds and latency.

Oh god, I can't think of many things worse(network-wise) than having wireless internet at home, no matter how fancy the technology behind it is.

I'm out in the countryside, with wireless 4g lte data through a mvno. It's actually pretty decent compared to my other option, which was 4mbps max DSL. Multiplayer games are out, but streaming video at a decent quality isn't bad at all, certainly better than satellite internet.

On the flip side, our local provider got a grant to update their network to fiber (and a threat to lose exclusivity if they didn't improve the network). Oddly enough, they'll be charging $200 for gigabit, and offering lower speeds for more reasonable prices, even though they're installing fiber directly to our home next spring.

It is kinda shitty, but then again, it's just another tradeoff to make when living out here. Personally, I wouldn't give it up for anything compared to living in the city.

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#187

Post by voltagex_ »

virgilp wrote: post #184
Ididntdothis wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“And I know my $50/mo rate will never rise.” Let’s hope they tie it to inflation or similar. Otherwise the system will die slowly due to underfunding.

Well, Romania is known for cheap internet prices, but for reference, here the largest _private_ operator is offering 1Gbps for $9.33/mo, taxes included (19% VAT). I kinda' doubt that $50/mo is really unsustainable, especially once the infrastructure is already built.

What's the actual bandwidth like? Where's the closest big exchange?

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#188

Post by snowwrestler »

millisecond wrote: post #123
kls wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we had this in the Florida Keys with AT&T who is the service provider of our area. I live 2 miles out on a peninsula of an island named Summerland, anyway I bought my house and AT&T assured me that I could get DSL but fiber would not be an option. I knew it was copper all the way to my home so I figured it would be the case. Anyways, I buy said house AT&T comes out and tried to get DSL working, and the lines have…

Without the exclusivity agreement, it sounds like you wouldn’t have been reconnected. A community provider probably wouldn’t allocate 70k in capital to bring 3 (potential) customers online. So you’re benefitting by the subsidy of users in denser areas being forced into exclusivity.

Consider what the community is already investing in these people. The street along which those lines were strung probably cost a lot more than 70k to construct and maintain; why would the municipality draw the line at Internet?

Re: Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps for $60 After Years of Battling Comcast

#189

Post by takk309 »

panzagl wrote: post #154
tylermac1 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 8th largest city in my state has a population of 16,000.

The western US is funny- I could name maybe 5-6 'cities' in Montana, but the largest barely has a large enough population to fill a football stadium.

Living in a giant state with just over a million people definitely changes one's perspective on city versus town.
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