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Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

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Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#31

Post by manquer »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #12
dheera wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're fucking Google. If they dig the streets up and give me 10 Gbps fiber I will be more than happy to show up to city council and yell the shit away from any NIMBY old fart that says no.

And more NIMBYs will show up to scream about Google overrunning local government. It is extremely easy to make hugely powerful corporations the villain, for obvious reasons, and this doesn't stop being true in the case where they want something actually good.

And yet all these mega corps can spend 100s of millions on lobbying and get favorable law passed or regulation taken care whether labor, FTC or taxes or EPA .

The local council is apparently the last bastion of democracy that can ward of influence of their largest tax payers and the wealthiest residents who are their employees

Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#33

Post by jakebasile »

hi-v-rocknroll wrote: post #32

Semi-rural residential Texas Triangle needs this. Some places have Spectrum (Charter) and nothing else. Google Fiber is fantasy outside of Austin. One notable exception is GVEC. https://www.gvec.net

Google Fiber is a fantasy for some people in Austin too. I was right outside their initially planned extent, literally by a block, and they have never bothered to extend out to my subdivision despite being within Austin limits.

I got AT&T Fiber instead and it has worked great for a decade. I just upgraded to their 2Gbps because they gave me a pretty solid deal on it.

Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#34

Post by nox101 »

I know people disagree with me about this. I certainly hate it that governments gave local monopolies to companies like Comcast

That said, I'm pretty confident municipal internet is bad thing in the long run (compared to actually competitive markets, not local monopolies)

Problems:

(1) Unlike say, water, sewage, power - internet tech changes 10gig might seem fast today. In 15 years it will seem slow. Will the government upgrade? My guess is they'll be slow to upgrade where as places with truly competitive markets will upgrade quick. I watched this happen in Japan. There were 4-5 different providers. One upgraded (twice the speed of competitors for same price), Competitors were forced to upgrade or lose their business

(2) Government run internet is bound to eventually be lobbied to be safe (what do you mean my taxes are being spent so people can download adult content! Stop that! ... etc)

(3) With Government run internet there is no competition so no one else can enter the market and compete.

Come back to this comment and in 10 years. See what speed competitive markets are at and compare to municipal and non-competitive markets.

Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#35

Post by bobthepanda »

nox101 wrote: post #34

I know people disagree with me about this. I certainly hate it that governments gave local monopolies to companies like Comcast That said, I'm pretty confident municipal internet is bad thing in the long run (compared to actually competitive markets, not local monopolies) Problems: (1) Unlike say, water, sewage, power - internet tech changes 10gig might seem fast today. In 15 years it will seem slow. Will the governm…

My understanding is that none of the municipal fiber networks are monopolies, so Comcast and co. still play ball in these markets. If this is truly bad then people will just leave.

In reality I think that enough local governments recognize that high quality Internet is a competitive differentiator when trying to attract business.

Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#36

Post by jwells89 »

lillecarl wrote: post #18
wlesieutre wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just got gigabit in Knoxville for $65. Which is actually a tough sell since AT&T already offers 300 megabit for $55 and I’m not sure what I’d do with a faster connection. But $65 from AT&T would only get me 500 megabit, so for people who do want faster speeds the KUB option is looking good.

There's more to a connection than speed, there might be data limits, there might be latency differences and it might just be unavailable or expensive. I'm not from the US, but if it's somewhat economically viable, go for the underdog.

In the US it’s also not uncommon for connections to be not only asymmetrical, but downright lopsided. Comcast sells “gigabit” in my area that’s 1.2Gbps down but only like 20Mbps up which is just silly.

Thankfully a competitor offers true gigabit for about the same price, and so that’s what I subscribe to.

Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#37

Post by wlesieutre »

jwells89 wrote: post #36
lillecarl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's more to a connection than speed, there might be data limits, there might be latency differences and it might just be unavailable or expensive. I'm not from the US, but if it's somewhat economically viable, go for the underdog.

In the US it’s also not uncommon for connections to be not only asymmetrical, but downright lopsided. Comcast sells “gigabit” in my area that’s 1.2Gbps down but only like 20Mbps up which is just silly. Thankfully a competitor offers true gigabit for about the same price, and so that’s what I subscribe to.

AT&T currently doing 390 down / 340 up on my symmetric 300 plan, can’t complain

Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#38

Post by rayiner »

nox101 wrote: post #34

I know people disagree with me about this. I certainly hate it that governments gave local monopolies to companies like Comcast That said, I'm pretty confident municipal internet is bad thing in the long run (compared to actually competitive markets, not local monopolies) Problems: (1) Unlike say, water, sewage, power - internet tech changes 10gig might seem fast today. In 15 years it will seem slow. Will the governm…

> I know people disagree with me about this. I certainly hate it that governments gave local monopolies to companies like Comcast

They didn’t do that. Exclusive franchises have been illegal under federal law for over 30 years: https://www.congress.gov/bill/102nd-congress/senate-bill/12 (“Prohibits a cable television franchising authority from granting an exclusive franchise or unreasonably refusing to award additional cable television franchises.”).

Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#39

Post by ubj »

I recently bought a house in Utah. Utopia is the best internet provider experience I've had so far (I've had Xfinity and Verizon previously).

Speeds are typically 10-25 Mbps _faster_ than the advertised rate I'm paying for. Being able to have multiple (~5 or more) provider options to choose between is a welcome change from past monopolies I've been trapped in.

Granted this all could change down the road (I hope not), but so far so good.

Re: Utah Locals Are Getting Cheap 10 Gbps Fiber Thanks to Local Governments

#40

Post by mikeyouse »

nox101 wrote: post #34

I know people disagree with me about this. I certainly hate it that governments gave local monopolies to companies like Comcast That said, I'm pretty confident municipal internet is bad thing in the long run (compared to actually competitive markets, not local monopolies) Problems: (1) Unlike say, water, sewage, power - internet tech changes 10gig might seem fast today. In 15 years it will seem slow. Will the governm…

This is a pretty silly comment given the "private" options that could have been at gbps speed for a decade+ are still at DSL and Cable speeds. Blind faith in 'the market' to solve these things after it's failed to do so seems odd.
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