Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative Nears Goal Virginia's Rural Fiber Project At 99% The Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative, seeking to provide broadband services for rural communities in Southside Virginia, appears to be nearing completion of its 700-mile fiber-optic ring, according to the Martinsville Bulletin. The network, extending across the bottom of Virginia, from Patrick to Sussex counties, and as far north as Appomattox and Buckingham counties, was partially funded by entities like the Virginia Tobacco Commission with a little help from XO Communications. "We are as of today about 99 percent completed with the fiber project," said general manager Tad Deriso, "We're kind of going from construction into operations."
|
  ThrowDemsOutIf you can't convince 'em, confuse 'emPremium
join:2002-03-03
Mullica Hill, NJ
kudos:4 |  Good news for Comcast, Verizon, & other ISPs
MBC is NOT just another access network. MBC is a wholesale telecommunications service provider. We do not serve retail customers. We do not compete with retail service providers. We provide services that make service providers more competitive. We will work aggressively to find ways for retail service providers to use the MBC network to expand the reach of their broadband services, offer new enhanced services to retail customers, and lower their cost of doing business to promote innovation and reinvestment. In other words, it will make it cheaper for Comcast and Verizon to bring their services to areas of Virginia they may have avoided due to the higher costs of leasing fiber from non-subsidized fiber providers.
--
--
Join Red Room Forum
BLOG tkjunkmail.blogspot.com
My Web Page | |
|  | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | Re: Good news for Comcast, Verizon, & other ISPs And all they sell is 100mbit and up $x000 per month dedicated circut to the internet. Whats the point, you might aswell say Level 3 is a new broadband choice for consumers (if you pay enough)!! | |
| | | | | Re: Good news for Comcast, Verizon, & other ISPs connect to their ring (SDH loop ?) and reseel the access via WiFi. i think you can easier than Comcast to get the license if you are a local guy (esp if you are a non profit), | |
| | | | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | Re: Good news for Comcast, Verizon, & other ISPs Wifi doesnt have much bandwidth, plus you would HAVE to oversubscribe, how much is a T1 again? And the people of the neighborhood probably dont care for broadband since they dont know how to use a computer, all geeks/nerds/yuppies/technophiles/cyberpunks moved to other areas a long time for broadband. The ppl of the neighborhood got along w/o broadband upto now, and how will this change their dialup ways? Surly you can find a couple people, but will it pay for the loop costs, let alone ISP charges? | |
|
| Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| said by ThrowDemsOut:In other words, it will make it cheaper for Comcast and Verizon to bring their services to areas of Virginia they may have avoided due to the higher costs of leasing fiber from non-subsidized fiber providers. I'm not sure there would be enough incentive for either comcast or verizon to deploy to areas they have already determined it's not profitable (enough).
The article indicates it is not replacing the "last mile", so that problem still exists for home customers. So what if there is a fiber ring a half mile up the road, when the phone company controls the wire into your home. If they decide they don't want to hook to that ring, it ain't gonna happen.
Even if the telco or cableco moves in and does use the fiber ring, it's still a monopoly or duopoly at best, with attendant high prices and likely poor service. It just means more people get to enjoy the wonderful pricing and services the rest of us have.
This will likely be a boon for business, but I don't see it helping rural home broadband much. | |
|
| | WiFi coops in many countries it is legal and relatively simple to establish cooperative/non-profit and start to provide WiFi services. need broadband access in rural arean ? read this thread on slashdot »slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=190···15642286 | |
| | | As someone that lives in the area.. I can tell you that yes they have been expanding up there, at least on the customer front. My mother just moved from the Dryfork area (between Danville and Martinsville) and even way up there in the hills you could get broadband via a cable line.
My mother lives in what you'd call the boonies, just getting a car to her home was a problem on the Virgina back roads. Anyone that has driven through the area can tell you just how far out in the sticks it is.
I live right over the state line in North Carolina. We do have TWC here but it does not get to every community sadly. Right now I'm on dial-up, but if I was about a quater mile up the road I could have cable. It's not like I'm the only house out here, if they would extend the line they would see many new subs.
Sprint has DSL in the area, but again it does not get far outside of the city. They know they'll have to dig up most of the phone lines out here if they ever want to have anything more than POTS on the line. I guess they don't see it begin worth the money.
I'm not out in the sticks, at least not as far as my mother was. I'm starting to question if we'll ever see broadband in my community. Before anyone says "start a WISP" we looked into it. It won't work with the trees and I doubt we could get a t1 out here at a price that would make it worth it to us.
I wish that I was 5 miles north and in Virgina! | |
| | | | Re: As someone that lives in the area.. did you consider 60' pole with WiFi antenna on top of it ? | |
|
| |
|
|
