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Municipal Wi-Fi Battle Moves to Texas
Cryofan writes "The fight in Texas is heating up over municipal wireless. Texas House Bill 789, under consideration in Texas, would impose one of the most extreme bans on municipal involvement in any form of communications--free or otherwise (the bill could ban free library access)."
Before you jump to conclusions why not try reading it first?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
I like the idea of wi-fi everywhere. I have no great love for or trust in telecom and cable companies.
But I don't have a lot of confidence that local governments could do a better job of delivering a high-tech service.
I don't buy my electricity from my town.
I don't buy my telephone service from my town.
I don't buy my cable service from my town.
I do buy my water from my town (Barnegat, NJ).
It's expensive and everybody I know has a filter on their kitchen faucets or under their sinks.
Insert witty sig here.
If I'm not mistaken, the postal service has not received public funding since 1982.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
"The United States Postal Service (although it isn't completely run by the government, it is largely funded by the government and thus, in my opinion, under government control)"
Sort of. USPS receives an annual budget of $0 from the government. According to the union's president last year, USPS is almost entirely funded through the sale of stamps (express and priority mail make up the rest, along with parcel post).
On the other hand, congress still sets rules and regulations that USPS has to follow, so even though your details are wrong, your point is correct.
In Hull, England, the telephone service was run by the local Authority. They had free local calls since 1904, broadband ADSL before anyone else had heard of it, and they've had ADSL based TV for several years now.
States are large and tend to get overly beurocratic, but smaller governmental organisations often run things rather well.
Sec. 51.002. DEFINITIONS.
(2) "Basic local telecommunications service" means:
Notice item (E) in the list. A telecom provider provides access to 911 service, among several other things. Notice the word "and" before item (H). It is important. A telecom provider connects you to 911, but 911 is not a telecom provider any more than a firetruck is.
People should not fear their government. Governments should fear their people.
Your characterization of the Postal Service is incorrect. The Postal Service is completely run by the government. All of its employees are government employees and all of its operations are self funded. Structurally, its set up as a separate government corporation which gives it a measure of autonomy, but the USPS is still answerable to Congress.
when did the brits start wearing stars and stripes on the shoulder patch ?
They are very probably way behind Bulgaria. Bulgarian education is excellent. For example, for a small country of less than 8 million, they usually appear in the top 5 at International Mathematics Olympiads (in amongst China, USA, Russia) and they produce superb developers.
Did he inhale?
No it is not. The USPS has not received a dime from the government for decades. In fact, it used to get reimbursed for the cheap rates it offers to non-profits; now it doesn't even get that. On top of this, it can't raise rates at will (rate changes have to be reviewed by the Postal Rate Commission), and it is mandated to serve each and every address.
For $0.37, you can send a letter from Maine to Guam. Compare these rates with those in Europe, for instance; or even in Canada. I have heard horror stories about Canada Post that you wouldn't believe.
Two good exmaples of government facilitating infrastructure are electricity and telephone service. A similar situation existed, where companies had no incentive to provide those services to the rural areas of teh US (which were much more extensive than today), so the government stepped in to provide a way to get those services to those areas. The Rural Electrification Act created electrical cooperatives (amonsgts other things) that bought power from utilities and ran the infrastructure to their members. Toda, a lot of people in very urban areas still get their power from their EMC (or some variation on that name). Sure, it took tax money, but I think most people wouyld agree that it provided hugh benefits to everyone.
While looney libretarians (but I'm redundant there) may believe that free enterprise can solve every problem, the reality is that it will only provide what is profitable.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Well I should respond to this on another few key points...
The first is to your last response. Government may only give tax money to a program like that, but it has some key things random individuals in a area might not have. Namely organization, contacts with existing business interests in the area, and better understanding of the area in general. It's also much easier for a government to get better deals on loans and other short term solutions needed while creating a network. If I wanted to do a setup a broadband ISP bussiness in my town I'd need all of those and more. I'd also have to get the municipalities permission if I was going to physically run lines and since phone and cable lines are 'owned' by those groups I'd have to do that or go wireless (I live in a naturally hilly area though so wireless is short ranged at best).
If their was an already existing business that wanted to setup broadband access then your idea works. But in most cases their is no business like that in these places. That leaves it to the people of those areas and frankly I doubt they could do it without involving the local government the way things stand. I know from personal experience my town never could. See I know because I tried. I spent a year workign out what was needed to create a local broadband infrastructure for my town of 5000. When I was done the cost was huge and frankly no one would loan me or anyone else with the experience and desire to do this the money required. So I asked the local government for help. They had access to better loans than me, wouldn't be turned down by the banks like I would, and had resources for all the things I found hard to get... Unfortunately they had zero interest in doing anything to help me start such a thing and stated they were happy waiting for Verizon and Time Warner to decide we were ready...
That was five years ago. TW and Verizon (even before they were Verizon) had told us almost 3 years before that about hwo theyed roll out broadband 'soon'. Last year Time Warner did get their act together and now we do have a broadband solution, but it only covers the town itself. Verizon can cover areas that TW can't with their DSL services, but they gutted our local loops nearly 5 years ago when they became Verizon and only selective 're-upgrade' our local loops to the CO to support DSL. That means for instance that because they don't think my section of town (near the edge of the city) is a valuable enough market to rewire our neighborhood loop to provide DSL even after they 'enabled' DSL at the CO. They also ignore the outlying areas that they could support, but don't feel it's worth doing. That means they only go where TW goes, and then not even to all the places TW does go. Hence currently I use TW.
Now you live in a very different place, though less than 10 miles away from us their is a town much like yours. The dynamics of a college town are much much different though. If I'm upset about how my local government uses my tax money I can go to the house of any councilman or the mayor and demand an answer. Most often they will even give me one! Some far off company that doesn't even want to put an local office (TW's closest office is 10 miles away, Verizon's closest office is 21 miles away) in my town, don't inspire the same level of confidance in me as my local government does. In a town this size the local government has to give their best as they are accountable to all their neighbors and they know it! The companies just really don't care at all on the other hand...
Looking back I wish the local government hadn't turned me down. In that time the two biggest businesses localy both closed. One was a woodworking company that had been here since this town was a lumber town. The other was a custom fiber glass comapny that had a hand in making parts for the hubble space telescope. Both lost market to other better equiped areas and nothing has replaced them because their is no insentive for a new company to come here. Broadband is primitive and selective, we aren't
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
No free WiFi for you! is in the Houston Chronicle.
The best quote:
"Obviously, this needs to dropped into the folder marked 'Evil.'"
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.