| Sign up for Semi Fiber-Hood If enough people speak up, they just might FORCE AT&T to bring them Uverse. Why do they have to be forced? Its ridiculous. |
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Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| It's time for some community activism This is kind-of intended for Karl, but also looking for some general comments and input from others here as well...
It occurs to me that one way DSLR could help people in this country get better broadband speeds is through the development of a community broadband activism toolkit. In addition to being a voice of reason on key issues like creation of municipal broadband, we could develop something - links, online tools, additional forums, and other things - that could be used by people to begin discussing topics like creating municipal broadband with the public and our elected officials.
I'm certain that I'm not the only one out here who sees the value in something like this.
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The only difference between Bush and Obama is the group they're wasting our taxpayer money on. It's time to elect responsible legislators. |
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| AT&T and Monsanto Two worst corporations on American soil. |
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| reply to Androidian
Re: It's time for some community activism I'll take it a step further. Why not seek to organize a grass-roots group to promote better broadband service in the United States? Call it something like Citizens for Our Broadband Future, and set up a forum so people can get organized, first, on a national level and then within states and communities. All the work can't be done online--there will eventually need to be face-to-face meetings on the local level, but an online forum is a great place to start. |
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Reviews:
·ProLog
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·voip.ms
| Doesn't Think It is Fair For Government To Help Why does AT&T feel it is not fair for the Government to help the locals when they have received Billions in Federal aid dollars over the years? A lot of this aid was to provide service to rural under-served areas.
What about the Wire America program the FCC is pushing? That is Federal money going to private companies. Are they against that also?
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The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. |
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| welp where are all the people stating that "there's clearly competition here"?
Elray? |
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 cdruGo ColtsPremium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
kudos:7 | reply to pende_tim
Re: Doesn't Think It is Fair For Government To Help said by pende_tim:What about the Wire America program the FCC is pushing? That is Federal money going to private companies. Are they against that also? No, because they can get to that money. They don't want muni broadband because ultimately its competition for subscribers. Either current subscribers, potential subscribers, or future subscribers (if they ever decide to bring broadband to that location). |
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openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | reply to pende_tim
said by pende_tim:What about the Wire America program the FCC is pushing? That is Federal money going to private companies. Are they against that also? Not if private industry is doing it. Legislation like this is introduced to prevent the public from competing with private industry. Other legislation is introduced to ensure public offerings are done in a fair and equitable manner for competition with the private sector. |
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 Lark3poPremium
join:2003-08-05
Madison, AL
·Knology
| reply to DataRiker
Re: AT&T and Monsanto said by DataRiker:Two worst corporations on American soil.
One of those is the worst and the other is definitely in the top 5 imo. |
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Reviews:
·Comcast
| reply to dfxmatt
Re: welp Well, there *is* competition out there already if one is in the market for absurdly crappy Internet service... 
Personally, I tend to be a very big supporter of the free market and competition. I don't see anything wrong with municipal broadband as a player in the ISP space, as long as it does not receive any special favors which could hamper the competitive landscape. If this is the case, municipal broadband could actually improve competition by providing an additional choice - which is always good for consumers.
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The only difference between Bush and Obama is the group they're wasting our taxpayer money on. It's time to elect responsible legislators. |
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| Muni If people want faster broadband, let them start up an ISP. With their own money. After all, bandwidth prices are falling and deploying fiber is supposedly much cheaper these days. Or at least there are countless people here who live and breath by that mentality when it comes to why the telcos should deploy fiber.
Problem here is, people want something for nothing. They want their local government to foot the bill. I have to agree that private sector companies shouldn't have to compete with the government. If there is truly need enough, people can start their own ISP or start a cooperative or something of the sort. They can create competition if that's what they want. Nothing is stopping them. |
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 gaforcesUnited We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
1 edit | reply to ITALIAN926
Re: Sign up for Semi Fiber-Hood Uverse wont be much help since they wont necessarily get faster speeds with it.
They forcibly switched us to Uverse and do not offer faster speeds than 3Mb, down the street people can get 6Mb. The same as it was before Uverse.
The only thing new Uverse offers here is a buggy router/modem combo that hijacks your browser with no bridge mode unless you hack it.
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Let them eat FIBER! |
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 tobyTroy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA
·OlyPen, Inc.
·CenturyLink
| reply to silbaco
Re: Muni said by silbaco:If people want faster broadband, let them start up an ISP. With their own money. After all, bandwidth prices are falling and deploying fiber is supposedly much cheaper these days. Or at least there are countless people here who live and breath by that mentality when it comes to why the telcos should deploy fiber.
Problem here is, people want something for nothing. They want their local government to foot the bill. I have to agree that private sector companies shouldn't have to compete with the government. If there is truly need enough, people can start their own ISP or start a cooperative or something of the sort. They can create competition if that's what they want. Nothing is stopping them.
The government is their own money.
People are willing to pay.
Saying people should start their own isp is like saying people should build their own power station if they want cheaper power . . .. most people don't know how to do this.
Is there a data line to feed this isp?
Do you consider satellite high speed internet too? 56k X2 modem dialup?
Another case of the, "I got mine, we don't need any help for others" |
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 Brian_M
join:2004-06-19
Manchester, GA
·Charter
·Windstream
| reply to silbaco
said by silbaco:They want their local government to foot the bill. Umm... where, exactly, do you think that money comes from? Thin air? Might be time to learn about how a government is funded, especially your local government.
I was part of a 5.9mil county project (IT dept for a library renovation) in Wyoming from 2007~2009. Every last cent came from a $0.01 sales tax increase. *I* would gladly add a one or two cent added tax to have a municipal ISP option.
Mostly, I feel like having the OPTION is what's important though. Why install a law stopping someone from doing something that would benefit a community? |
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Brian_M
join:2004-06-19
Manchester, GA Reviews:
·Charter
·Windstream
| @#$@#%#@!@^%ing worthless companies Just called my rep... voice mail only though. Plus an email and I'll draft a fax here shortly as well.
I can't believe AT&T/Windstream. Hell, Windstream CAN'T offer over even 1Mbps in my community because it was so oversold (I'd often see 0.01Mbps from 3pm~way after I was in bed), but they Claim it was 6Mbps.
Sickens me. |
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| reply to openbox9
Re: Doesn't Think It is Fair For Government To Help said by openbox9:said by pende_tim:What about the Wire America program the FCC is pushing? That is Federal money going to private companies. Are they against that also? Not if private industry is doing it. Legislation like this is introduced to prevent the public from competing with private industry. Other legislation is introduced to ensure public offerings are done in a fair and equitable manner for competition with the private sector. Large corporations by extension of lobbying are no longer "private" entities.
Even more, this is done for the sole reason of screwing the common lay person, to the benefit of the elite. |
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2 edits | reply to Brian_M
Re: Muni The idea behind a lot of these projects it that they will turn a profit and pay themselves off. That may or may not happen. Either way, people are not willing to take the risk of the liability, hence is why they want to start a muni. They also want the bill to get footed by the people who have no intention on ever subscribing, such as older couple who are quite happy without the internet should the muni lose money, which it probably will. |
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Reviews:
·Comcast
| reply to silbaco
said by silbaco:If people want faster broadband, let them start up an ISP. With their own money. Precisely.
People = community
Their own money = taxpayer funds, which is technically the community's money
I don't necessarily think that a municipal ISP has to run in a manner that provides Internet service to all residents in a community as part of their tax bill. They could do this as a start-up using taxpayer funds as a long-term loan to be paid back, and charge the equivalent of user fees for each person who receives access. Access could be priced at a break-even point, as governments have no need to run with a profit-centered orientation. At the end of the day, the net cost to the taxpayer base as a whole would be zero.
It's clear in many circumstances that for-profit companies won't bring high speed to certain areas. They clearly don't feel that it's profitable (or is profitable enough to meet their target margins), and in many of those cases they're probably right. I see no problem with local governments and possibly others stepping in to provide service where these for-profit companies won't, and also see no issue with them stepping in to provide a competitive alternative to Comcast and the like in areas that are presently being served. This can only increase competition, which ultimately benefits consumers.
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The only difference between Bush and Obama is the group they're wasting our taxpayer money on. It's time to elect responsible legislators. |
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| reply to toby
Not knowing how to to something is not an excuse. If you want it, you learn. |
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| Leave it to Slowstream I don't know about AT&T but Windstream?! Yeah... just take a look in the forums and see what Windstream customers have to suffer through. They know you don't have a choice and if you did, their customer base would be zero in areas like this. |
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