91–100 of 170 posts
Community-owned _ broadband networks _ I'm not sure about. Community-owned _ physical infrastructure _ (especially last-mile — fiber & copper going to everybody's house) … that needs to be the default. And if it's not community-owned, it needs to be regulated with open access requirements. Yes you can theoretically build a second fiber network and hook up people's houses. Yes it has happened in actual practice. But i…
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And there's more good news. Minnesota is not on that map, but Minnesota has moved in very good directions re: ISPs. My rural neighbors have community internet, and it's _good_. High quality fiber. I have centurylink - ok not a community plan, but it competes directly with T-mobile, Xfinity (comcast), and other cell-based providers, and provides an excellent product for much cheaper. And I know for a fact that colorad…
Centurylink mentioned in the same ballpark as a "community network" is hilarious to me, having grown up in Minnesota. It's literally the incumbent Bell provider - back in the day being AT&T and then USWest after the antitrust breakup. Times certainly have changed for someone to even have this thought, much less write it down!
The exact opposite is very likely to happen in the next four years, a federal ban on community networks, lobby paid for by the same big telecom that was previously doing it piecemeal at the local level, they'll just buy 100 rooms at that special hotel in DC and the bill will get signed in sharpie like a 5-year-old.
Sure, it will end up at the supreme court in a lawsuit but of course that's a lock too now.
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> Unimaginable in the US With good reason. Building codes in the US prevent disasters like the one that happened at Grenfell Towers in the UK. Run plenum-rated wires through an appropriate space for safety's sake.
The code is just as bought and paid for by the materials manufactuers in the US as it is anywhere else. They get fiery but mostly peaceful apartment building siding, we get spray foam and rotten roofs.
There are two inherently fire-safe, inexpensive insulation options, borated cellulose and mineral wool. You can even use them as fire-stops. Neither are good to use in an application where they receive rain.
Polystyrene and fiberglass get runner up status because they melt & retreat from a fire at sub-ignition temperature, which doesn't spread the flame but does open up the wall.
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UK building codes (we call them building regulations) should also have prevented Grenfell. A large issue was that the companies involved were using materials which weren't up to code.
Specifically, they stuck to the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law. (made an 'equivalent' fireproof product, which legally didn't need retesting, but in fact performed far worse) Same with VW and dieselgate. (made a car which did well when tested, but badly in the real world) The pattern is that complex regulations always have loopholes, when far better would be to wipe out all the regulations and simply pu…
I lived in a city of about 20k, not near any big city. There were two different fiber companies(one utility, one private) and Spectrum offering service. Cookeville, Crossville, McMinnville, Manchester, Tullahoma, etc...cities most probably haven't even heard of, all have generally great FTTH coverage.
A hundred years ago on irc someone from Russia was describing their internet connection, which was ethernet, while I had only ever heard of dial up outside of large companies. It was just people had set up their own hubs and switches in their appartment buildings and strung cables between buildings. This blew my mind. They just ran themselves ethernet and everyone got a drop from a switch in their building. It wasn't…
You're describing the sort of daydreams I had about running a cable between my home and my friend's home when I was 14 years old. We were too far apart. But playing Descent matches would have been awesome. We got by on dialup, but a kid can dream. I also dreamt of ISDN. Looking back, it seems such a paltry offering, but that tells you what an old man I've become.
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And from the article, the telecom industry receives billions in corporate welfare. A common argument against cutting it off is that telecom is capital intensive infrastructure, and if you cut their govbux you're blocking poor people from being able to communicate, we all deserve the right to communicate. But if that's your take, how can you also hate the protectionist laws? Telecom are given a monopoly because it doe…
In some countries there is sometimes a cable & data connection owner and then a separate service provider. Laws regulate that the cable provider must let other companies provide connections to customers over their cables. The service provider pays the cable owner for a bulk of data that its customers use. The cable owner can't charge more than it charges itself when it acts as a service provider. Not sure if that mad…
Laws already regulate that space; what's your point?