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Getting Broadband To The Bayou
Caseylite points out an article in USA Today "about the struggle between the city of Lafayette, Louisiana and BellSouth. The big telecom objects to the city installing its own fiber-optic network, claiming unfair competition. The city says its goal is bringing high-speed data access to low income areas to break the poverty cycle, stating a link between broadband access and education and employment."
On the one side is the innocent corporation which would never think to hold back service until the people are willing to pay through their teeth for it.
On the other side is the innocent government which would never think to render everyone's communications legally monitorable.
In the middle are all the people who don't know what the heck is going on but just want to amuse themselves on the network.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
The only thing that is unfair about this is how companies like BellSouth are allowed to actually slow down processes that are helping people just so they can try to get a piece of the pie. I am sick and tired of companies trying to put their own profits before the greater good of society.
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I'm not a vegan because I love animals, I'm a vegan because I hate plants!
I live in Lafayette, where this is occuring. The problem isn't that the companies have direct control over what goes on in creating the network, but they do have the ability to run commericals nonstop badmouthing the city's plans. Bellsouth is partnering with Cox Communications, which is the city's cable provider. So, as you can imagine, running advertisements saying that the city's plans are bad doesn't cost them very much.
> and are an important source of income for many
. ht ml
> millions of people
42 million people in the US own 401k plans:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5168863
I'd guess that non-401K, like the TIAA-CREF related plans, are another 20 million or so. Even when you factor in that some of these are the lone breadwinner of an entire family, the fact that the US has 300 million people means that this doesn't represent the majority of Americans.
Only about half of Americans have any money, directly or indirectly, in the stock market. Many people's "retirement plan" is social security, their house if they have one, and their children if they have them.
It is these - the less fortunate half - that the city was trying to help.
We're practicing our labials.
How The Bells Stole America's Digital Future: Part I
And I'm just going to give a token mention to the miles and miles of unlit (dark) fiber lying around unused because it's "owned" by the phone company. And by owned I mean the state practically gave it to them through tax breaks.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Why can't the city just lay a dozen lines instead of one, and then auction off access to companies? Then the companies are free to market their service packages to the homeowners.
This gets around the bullshit of unfair competition and actually creates real competition.
Ensure each fiber line is capable of 100 mb or more up and down, build into the bidding process requirements of no blocked ports for internet service, no prohibitions on running servers, and businesses as well as individuals of all types are on equal footing as to access.
A dozen lines would cover the local telephone monopoly, the local cable monopoly, the local power company monopoly, the local water company monopoly, any other traditional (long distance/AT&T) monopoly, and will have lines left over for competitive bidding by independent internet service providers, the small guys.
The power company gets to read their meters remotely if lines are left over and cheap enough verses sending out a meter reader, the water company can bid for their own line for water meter reading or piggyback on the power company line, the cable company no longer has to maintain their own copper and can sell phone, video, and whatever else they want, the local phone company loses their monopoly and tax breaks on investment and all the other sweets they normally bribe legislators for, and either they compete, or they risk other areas looking at the city as a learning lesson and the idea spreads.
Laying a dozen lines of fiber is hardly more expensive than laying one line due to the majority of the cost being in the labor in digging up the ground or installing poles and all the related charges.
The city running their own fiber? My city can't even get water bills right, can't answer the phone, can't fix a manhole that makes noise for the last ten years, can't fix catch basins that overflow when it lightly rains for closer to 20 years, can't follow their own zoning laws (unless the builder bribes them and then everything is ok), can't plow snow on some streets a week after a snowfall, can't, can't, can't...
Am I really going to trust my city to not snoop on my internet and voip packets after I complain to the city or sue them in court?
Am I going to trust my city to not snoop on my internet and voip packets when my city is represented by about 90% of one party, and they call me up on election day to make sure I go vote for them? Am I going to trust them to not snoop on my internet and voip packets if I was registered in a different political party for the previous ten or twenty years prior to them installing voip?
Am I going to trust them to not snoop on my internet and voip packets when I call up to report a problem, and the phone rings twenty times and then I hear the phone receiver picked up, fumbled, then hung up again, to hear the line go dead? And when I call again, I hear the same thing, only laughter in the background as it is happening? And when I report what happened to a complaint line?
The city should lay the fiber lines, multiple lines, then auction access to them. Use the auction money to pay off the laying of the lines. And if that doesn't cover the total cost, consider it an investment in the future of the city, and an increase in the competitive attraction to businesses and individuals due to far superior internet access as compared to other cities, nearly every other city in the US.