rawgerz
In Debt we trust
Premium
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA | reply to youngo
Re: Jealous
"They are indeed afraid of competition."
kinda like how verizon has those anti muni campaigns against wifi on a state wide level? hmmm;)
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Read this! |
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Combat Chuck
Too Many Cannibals
Premium
join:2001-11-29
Erie, PA
| said by rawgerz  :kinda like how verizon has those anti muni campaigns against wifi on a state wide level? hmmm;) Theres a huge difference between competing with another company and competing with someone who ultimately has the taxpayer to fall back on if everything goes to hell.
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Beagles really should come in convienent 10 packs. |
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Galvage
join:2004-02-11
Taconite, MN
| quote:
Theres a huge difference between competing with another company and competing with someone who ultimately has the taxpayer to fall back on if everything goes to hell.
Not really.
They just have different things that happen.
If the community broadband fails then the taxpayers pay errr already payed for it. But in reality they really didn't lose much building it. The price that it costs to build a community broadband service is lower than what it costs to replace the water heater at City hall. Plus with a Community broadband you can start it out small and see where it leads. If it fails thats the cost of trying. If it succeeds then you really lose nothing. Most of it would be administered by current salaried city employees anyways. |
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ricep5
Premium
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL
 ·AT&T Southeast
 ·AT&T CallVantage
·VoicePulse
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
| reply to Combat Chuck
Muni broadband does not use tax dollars. They use municipal revenue bonds that are sold to third parties, are insured, and paid back by the subscribers.
Tax dollars are only involved when a taxing body wants to offer the service to everyone for free and covers their costs in their annual tax revenue budget. The typical "tax supported" broadband is in libraries and courthouses. |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs:
·LINGO
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·surpasshosting
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Combat Chuck
said by Combat Chuck :Theres a huge difference between competing with another company and competing with someone who ultimately has the taxpayer to fall back on if everything goes to hell. If you consider the tax dollars already being used to subsidize these "private" companies, the difference dwindles. |
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Combat Chuck
Too Many Cannibals
Premium
join:2001-11-29
Erie, PA
| reply to ricep5
As I've said before, when it comes to government all bets are off when the cow poopie hits the fan; the only sure thing is that if no one else steps in, the taxpayers are then ones who will pay by default when someone doesn't follow thru on their promise.
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Beagles really should come in convienent 10 packs. |
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Combat Chuck
Too Many Cannibals
Premium
join:2001-11-29
Erie, PA
| reply to JTRockville
said by JTRockville :If you consider the tax dollars already being used to subsidize these "private" companies, the difference dwindles. I'm against that too, but you don't solve a problem by extending the problem to new realms.
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Beagles really should come in convienent 10 packs. |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs: | True enough. But it seems to me a muni system, funded the way Tri-Cities proposed, is the best way to avoid taxpayer-funded infrastructure. |
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mjcrocket
Mjc
join:2000-12-02
Abingdon, MD
| said by JTRockville :True enough. But it seems to me a muni system, funded the way Tri-Cities proposed, is the best way to avoid taxpayer-funded infrastructure. NO! The last proposal by the Tri-Cities group was to use a type of bond financing that had a credit rating lower than "Junk Status". In other words, they were proposing to go to a form of "Loan Shark" financing; the very worst type of financing possible. Further, if I remember correctly; the financial consultant they were getting their advice from had no experience with planning, constructing, or operating any type of cable system.
Insuring, or guaranteeing any bond is the responsibility of the organization issuing the bonds. They would still count against the credit limit of the city or town that issued them, limiting the amount of other bonds that they might want to issue for other projects. If payments on these bonds were to go into default, the credit rating of the issuing city or town would be lowered and the interest rate on the bonds issued for other projects would go up!
In the Tri-Cities debate we NEVER once heard anything from the people promoting the project that they would purchase any of the bonds! If their financing model was such a good thing, why didn't they want to purchase any of the resulting bonds?
As best I can find out there are only 17 Muni Fiber systems operating in the US. There are about 55,000 municipal governments in the US. Contrary to what we are reading here on BBR; I don't exactly consider 17 communities a great rush by communities to provide this advanced service! Further, if there was such a great rush the Fiber to the Home Council would be keeping their list of systems up to date! Their currently published list has not been updated for the past year! |
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