I may be missing something but is the suggestion that local municipalities dig their last mile and run their own fiber? That's ... Not likely to succeed surely? I assume the actual dig out is a specialised job, with no private hire market, the back haul ... To where and to whom? Do most towns know where their nearest telehouse/interconnect is? The support tasks are difficult - and scale pretty well, but not if you ha…
I recall reading about this being done, honestly. The community actually running the lines. I wish I remembered where, I'd link it.
> "People love to complain about the speed of their Internet access and with good reason." I'm sorry, but no, in my experience, they don't. I can't think off hand of any non-tech person in my area complain about their Internet speed. People pay $42/mo here for 9/2Meg and because it will play Netflix and get them on Facebook, it's good enough. I'm not arguing against a fiber upgrade, I'd love to see it, but in the end…
It has been my experience that "non-tech people" do complain about their internet speed because the major ISPs actually don't provide good enough service for them to play Netflix and get on Facebook as consistently as they want. More importantly, what "non-tech people" don't realize is what they will want in the future. In 2008, they didn't know they would want to stream Netflix over the internet. I don't think there…
I was really hoping to see someone have a different experience than me, so thank you ;). Not sure why the difference though, perhaps we have the speed around here but just not a decent price. I've heard more non-tech people complain about the data caps actually, especially families with children who watch kids shows on Netflix.
I am involved in a local community fiber project- DadeCountyFiber.org and I have been thinking along similar lines. I think an association or coop model may work best. I am actually considering a proposal to organize a Fraternal Society that would operate with local chapters controlling the local networks, and leveraging the resources of each other. The Fraternal Society would provide education and social activities…
The main need for community fiber is because we've proven that private companies cannot be trusted with a broadband monopoly/duopoly and yet to allow more companies to run lines would create chaos. For that reason, the community needs to control the last mile. But the community doesn't need to be the ISP. Without the barrier to entry that is running lines to residential customers, many smaller ISPs will be able to co…
I tend to like the open access model you are proposing. I am very inclined to operate the network on an open access model. However, depending on our funding sources, we may be forced to be an ISP and phone company to get the funding. Right now we are exploring the FCC's Rural Broadband Experiments. In theory, we could have a partner service provider handle the phone service requirement, but it may not be as easy to do in practice. Thanks for commenting. Even if we do operate our own ISP/Phone Company, it is strongly likely the network will be open access.