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Why Municipal Broadband is Good

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the why-johnny-can't-speed dept.

batageek writes "An excellent interview with Jim Baller (muni-telco-lawyer) concerning the growth and efforts of municipal broadband providers and the fights they go through with the incumbent providers and state legislatures." If you're wondering why you don't have fiber-to-the-home yet, read this.

9 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. I have a dream, brothers and sisters by caluml · · Score: 5, Funny

    That one day, all houses will be made with fibre straight to the door, and bandwidth will be just another amenity, much like electricity, or gas, or telephones are now. And then all the local bandwith companies can fight over our business, and offer us lower and lower rates.

    --
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    1. Re:I have a dream, brothers and sisters by Dutchmaan · · Score: 5, Funny

      a single fiber serving 4 square blocks is plenty

      ..so is 640k...or so I hear.

    2. Re:I have a dream, brothers and sisters by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Funny
      the fusion splicer is a cheap $35,000.00US and can be destroyed easily.

      But most of that cost is for the flux capacitor, which is usually salvageable. Anyway, if you use reasonable care selecting fusion fuel, you probably won't ruin your splicer.

    3. Re:I have a dream, brothers and sisters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      but even then it is very unprobable.

      I didn't know George W. had a slashdot account!

      (I would say Homer Simpson, but that's unpossible.)

    4. Re:I have a dream, brothers and sisters by rifter · · Score: 3, Funny

      Good god, man. The whole article is about the state of Fibre to the Home in the US. Besides, do you really want Americans to know where your country is on a map? That's the first step to liberating the hell out of it! Otherwise we could care less about other countries.

      But yes, the system of lot and block numbers to designate chunks of real estate is a US invention, IIRC created by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which was created to regulate the implementation of westward expansion/Manifest Destiny. Now if you will excuse us, we have to get back to carving up Iraq. ;)

  2. I'm not getting enough fiber!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    to my home that is.. who do I call about this?

  3. That's great but... by swasson · · Score: 3, Funny

    until I get electricity and running water out here in NEW Mexico, broadband is the least of my worries.
    /sarcasm

    --
    "Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" -- Homer Simpson
    1. Re:That's great but... by swasson · · Score: 1, Funny

      Actually, I've got an army of scorpions running on treadmills...

      --
      "Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" -- Homer Simpson
  4. Re:No thanks. by RealAlaskan · · Score: 3, Funny
    ... many of the omish in northern michigan have very nice homes and lives and have NO ELECTRICITY...

    You misspelled that: it's Ohmish, not ``omish''. Note that it's capitalized, as befits a proper noun.

    The Ohmish do without electricity because of their high resistance to the modern world. Their opposite, so to speak, are the Mhoish, or Siemenites, whose beliefs are quite conductive to amenities like electricity.

    --
    See what I've been reading.