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Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

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Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#21

Post by BreadPants »

jrgifford wrote: post #16

It'll be interesting to see if they can do this better than previous attempts. I remember in 2009 when OneCommunity tried[1], 2014 when OneCommunity launched everstream, their for-profit arm (and didn't change much)[2], or the 2018 Old Brooklyn/Ward 13 project[3]. Somewhere in there, there was an initiative (probably 2009 or so?) that included public wifi in Cleveland Heights along much of Cedar Road, where One Commu…

I remember that and did contact Everstream for internet service. It was 1000/1000, but they wanted $500 for running the lines from across the street and then $500 per month after that. Insane.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#22

Post by parineum »

nerdponx wrote: post #8
thelastgallon wrote: post #3

> despite billions in tax breaks, regulatory favors, and subsidies, companies like AT&T have long refused to upgrade low-income and minority Cleveland neighborhoods to fiber. There is a very easy solution to this. Electric utilities should be required to lay fiber along with electric. They can choose to offer internet (better) or offer fiber with a choice of carriers. EPB in Chattanooga has been providing fiber to ho…

Imagine that: company gets free money from the government to do such-and-such thing but isn't strictly required to do it, then they take the free money and don't do the thing. It's almost like corporations are self-interested and un-altruistic.

I don't know why you'd be railing against the company here for acting in it's best interest (exactly as you'd expect) rather than the state for giving away money with no strings attached.

A private business sure as hell wouldn't be so foolish as to sign such a contract.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#23

Post by zdragnar »

BreadPants wrote: post #21
jrgifford wrote: post #16

It'll be interesting to see if they can do this better than previous attempts. I remember in 2009 when OneCommunity tried[1], 2014 when OneCommunity launched everstream, their for-profit arm (and didn't change much)[2], or the 2018 Old Brooklyn/Ward 13 project[3]. Somewhere in there, there was an initiative (probably 2009 or so?) that included public wifi in Cleveland Heights along much of Cedar Road, where One Commu…

I remember that and did contact Everstream for internet service. It was 1000/1000, but they wanted $500 for running the lines from across the street and then $500 per month after that. Insane.

$500 for running the lines under a street isn't too far out of the ordinary (I paid $300 for a longer run, but there was nothing to go under, so the job was easy).

That said, $500/month for service is insane.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#24

Post by dd36 »

parineum wrote: post #22
nerdponx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine that: company gets free money from the government to do such-and-such thing but isn't strictly required to do it, then they take the free money and don't do the thing. It's almost like corporations are self-interested and un-altruistic.

I don't know why you'd be railing against the company here for acting in it's best interest (exactly as you'd expect) rather than the state for giving away money with no strings attached. A private business sure as hell wouldn't be so foolish as to sign such a contract.

It is in a company’s best interest to make sure corruption is legal?

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#25

Post by llsf »

Would it make sense for the municipality to own the pipes that run in the city ? Like some cities own the sewer pipes. Could it be an infrastructure that the city builds, owns, maintains and rents to ISP ? The city would have a full control on how many houses are connected. That is the type of investments that a city is suited for (i.e. large upfront cost financed by bonds). AT&T, Charter, Comcast, they have no incentive to invest a lot upfront. And they might duplicate the infrastructure. At the end the customer pays for the piecemeal fiber deployment, and redundancy.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#26

Post by gs17 »

chasd00 wrote: post #10
zrail wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the municipality owns the poles and the power company this is comparatively easier. In places that own both, like Traverse City in Michigan, Chattanooga TN, or Longmont CO, this model can be incredibly effective. The problem, at least in my part of the world (Michigan) is that most municipalities do not own the poles or the power company. The power company is instead a large publicly traded corporation, albeit wit…

isn't "pole ownership" and access to those poles what doomed google fiber? In some cases it's easy to run fiber yourself in other cases it's completely impossible.

In some places they seem to be working around it. Here in Nashville they cut into every street/alley to run fiber (it isn't available at my apartment, but they did run it down our street, which is not a main street at all).

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#27

Post by markofzen »

jrgifford wrote: post #16

It'll be interesting to see if they can do this better than previous attempts. I remember in 2009 when OneCommunity tried[1], 2014 when OneCommunity launched everstream, their for-profit arm (and didn't change much)[2], or the 2018 Old Brooklyn/Ward 13 project[3]. Somewhere in there, there was an initiative (probably 2009 or so?) that included public wifi in Cleveland Heights along much of Cedar Road, where One Commu…

There's actually an existing initiative that provides cheap wireless across parts of lower income areas run by PCs for people and pretty large nonprofit. So there's definitely hope with expansion from wireless to fiber I think.

Re: Cleveland launches plan to provide cheap broadband

#28

Post by gs17 »

ralph84 wrote: post #18

Too little too late. Comcast is running ads trying to scare people into not dropping their home internet service. That’s a pretty clear sign that a lot of people are doing just that and relying solely on mobile.

I doubt it's so much "no one wants home internet anymore" but more "Comcast is so expensive and annoying that mobile is nicer".
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