Slashdot Mirror
Municipal Broadband Projects Spread Across U.S.
Mediacitizen writes "Media rights group Free Press has just unveiled an online broadband map showing the vast extent to which publicly supported 'Community Internet' projects have overtaken towns across the country. Hundreds of communities now have municipal broadband systems on the drawing board, despite aggressive lobbying efforts by big telephone and cable companies to derail these projects. The national map shows Community Internet is spreading like a prairie fire."
I'm tired reading of another solution for the poor urban that can afford a laptop and wireless. How about us sad 48K dialup bastards in the dark zone of rural internet.
This is how broadband was introduced to the mid-sized towns (10k-30k population) in my region a few years back. Service has been much better than I've heard delivered from the big ISPs; I've only had one or two downtimes and they only lasted a few minutes...Though I did end up having to show the cable guy how to configure a network connection properly. All he knew was "ipconfig".
F/OSS software is the only truly free market of which I am aware, and the methodology of building and sharing one's own has spread into other arena well--beauty!
Markets work on info, and the telcos/cable unreasonable rates have been "taxing" small business and consultants (such as myself) at highly excessive rates.
These communities, one or another "get it"--their economies will enefit in sooooo many ways from this (relatively) minor investments.
I love it.
That's nice and all, but for most states it is at most 4 or 5 municipalities. How many thousands are in the US total? Plus, what is the impact on local taxes of providing "free" broadband. Personally, I'd rather have some free market competition to drive prices down.
"As you say - certain behaviors minimize the HIV risk and writing Slashdot tripe on Friday night is by far the most secu
"They are coming captain!! They are everywhere! We can't stop them!!"
"Hold your position!! Reinforcement will arrive soon!!"
"We can't hold the line much long-"NO CARRIER
"So... that pretty much encompases the entire province I'd say."
Sweet joke. Yeah they just put a tower up on Spy Hill, Wood Mountain, and Climax for redundancy, as a tower anywhere would serve all locations, or at least the edges of towns facing the towers.
For those that don't get the joke, there are no towers in any of those three places that sound like high elevations, and SK has an un-deserved reputation for being a completely flat wheat field because that's what it looks like from the Trans Canada Highway through the southern grain belt. Nearly half of the province is actually trees, lakes, rocks, and brush.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
I'm sad my city voted down Utopia. Qwest sent every one of their lobbyists out to stop this plan of FTTH for every home and business in the city. They argued it would fail and cost the cities money. But if it failed, then the fiber plan would go out to the highest bidder. Obviously, Qwest could have afforded it had they known it would fail....but they knew it wouldn't fail. So they had to stop it.
Luckily other cities voted for it. Already some are offering cheap plans for 15MB down and up, with businesses getting 30 MB down and up.
. . . is hereby proven to not always be a bad thing. Historic biases not withstanding.
"Hundreds of communities now have municipal broadband systems on the drawing board, despite aggressive lobbying efforts by big telephone and cable companies to derail these projects."
Well that's all well and good, but I'll let you in on a secret. The internet is composed of linked smaller networks. Municipal broadband to be truely useful, needs to be linked to other networks. Guess who owns those links? That's right, telephone and cable. It's one thing to be insular and say "I don't need you". It's another to realize that you are just spiting your face.
"The national map shows Community Internet is spreading like a prairie fire.""
Ms O'Leary's cow will be glad to hear that.
that this causes existing providers to lower their rates.
The internet is to the modern age what books were to those who came before. In the past, you could be intelligent and educated if your family could afford a fairly large, private library, stocked with the expected classics. Or if you had access to one somehow, usually through a university.
The advent of public libraries allowed common people access to the educational tools and knowledge base once held only by the social elite. This lies at the heart of the American Dream - people who labor for little or nothing can raise children who, through public education and public libraries, know a more prosperous life as their inborn potential allows. The social and financial potential of their parents no longer truly mattered.
Today, almost anything you could want to learn exists on the internet, from home repairs to getting a foundation in some of the most advanced scientific research mankind does. Not having this access leaves you at a serious disadvantage to those who do have it. A modern city of any signifigance does not exist without a public library at its center somewhere, and, if society acts with the same wisdom as before, ways will be found to bring the internet readily to the masses. Civic access to the internet is, in this context, the only truly logical way to go.
Besides, Orson Scott Card predicted civic net access in Ender's Game. You wanna argue against the guy?
I cannot understand why people think this is a good policy. It's welfare for techies. Who is going to be using these new taxpayer funded networks? The very people most able to afford broadband access! Do you really think the poor are going to be flocking down to BestBuy to pick up laptops so they can take advantage of this "free" service? Hah! This is a giveaway to the rich! If this is truly for the poor and needy, then why not give them $20 a month to go shop for online access?
But beyond that, I can't understand why *slashdot* readers are creaming their pants over this topic. If it were anything else they would be bitching at government intrusion into our lives. We're worried about the government snooping on our networks, yet we're clamouring for government owned networks? There's a whole section on Slashot called "YRO", yet no one seems to realize that government operated wifi networks are a huge threat to your rights online.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
"Broadband Reports explains that Texas Representative Pete Sessions is trying to pass the "Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005" (HR2726), which would ban towns and cities from wiring themselves for broadband.
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However Sessions is not only a 16 year ex-SBC employee, his wife works for Cingular, and he holds half a million dollars in SBC stock options, according to an e-mail being circulated today by media reform outfit Free Press.
"Congressman Sessions is the latest poster child for corruption on Capitol Hill," says Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press."
from http://www.dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=New
How is this causing cable and telecommunications companies to lose money? The cities and states aren't getting free bandwith. It's costing taxpayers money. Where is that money going if it's not to the Qwests and Comcasts who own and maintain the internet infrastructure in cities?
The Flash map itself if powered by my DIY Map tool. It's free (as in beer) for personal and non-profit use. You can download it at http://backspace.com/mapapp/.
Where I live in Wyandotte, Michigan, we've had municipal broadband for years. Its not free, but "competitively priced" as if a company provided the service. I pay ~$50 for 4Mb/512k cable service. The city contracted a Canadian provider, ParaSun Technologies, to be the ISP. The city owns the cable network, so they can provide whatever services they want. Of course, the city also owns their own power plant and water treatment facilities. The only services provided by public utility companies is natural gas and telephone.
What?
Basic services are often provided by municipalities. Water, sewerage, police, roads, et al.
An alternative to municipal or state provision of services is the co-op. Co-ops brought electricity to vast areas when private electric companies/monopolies would not make the investment in infrastructure to make electricity available.
Internet access is rapidly becoming a necessity. If private business will not service a market, then local government or a co-op can do this. Which of the two is a matter of local circumstance.
The co-op seems to be an overlooked option.
Hi!
/Tomas
Welcome to look at our 1 Gbps/100 Mbps project. It has been online since 1999 and just got upgraded to 1 Gbps uplink to the Internet.
http://www.bjornerback.com/tomas/mattgrand (currently 77 845 visitors since 1999).
And yes, my server WILL be able to handle a Slashdotting! (I guess quite a lot of you guys already have seen the page, but it got updated with pictures of the 1 Gbps equipment a few days ago).
I have 1 Gbps Internet access@home