 
NSdsl
join:2002-12-18
Danvers, MA | Local Government I have been waiting for FIOS for months. Anytime you involve so many local governments you are asking for delays. Go to anytime town meeting and you will see terribly, inefficient government at its worst. | |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Speakeasy
| Re: Local Government said by NSdsl  :I have been waiting for FIOS for months. Anytime you involve so many local governments you are asking for delays. Go to anytime town meeting and you will see terribly, inefficient government at its worst. Some would argue that you see democratic government in its rawest form at work. I know that it's rather rare that Joe Average Citizen can walk into Congress and have the right to be heard.
-tom
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"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
| Re: Local Government said by nixen :Some would argue that you see democratic government in its rawest form at work. I know that it's rather rare that Joe Average Citizen can walk into Congress and have the right to be heard. In most examples cited on BBR, it is local government which gets in the way of advanced broadband deployments. Getting any opposition out of the way of these deployments will be good for everyone.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| Re: Local Government said by pnh102 :In most examples cited on BBR, it is local government which gets in the way of advanced broadband deployments. Getting any opposition out of the way of these deployments will be good for everyone. Local government rarely, if ever, gets in the way of data service deployments. It's video service deployments that they object to.
These state-wide franchises grant video deployment rights only and say nothing about data service deployment. The telcos though do not want to deploy data services unless they can deploy video services, because, well, three times as many people watch cable tv than use high speed internet.
When video providers screw up (and they screw up more than any utility because of the nature of the utility), they are brought back in line through government oversight. If you look through the experiences in the various forums, look at the different levels of results obtained through the BBB, state PUC, state AG, and local FA. You will almost always find a better response and better results stemming from the local FA for single consumer issues.
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ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet
telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com
Professional Geographer
Geographic Information Science researcher | |
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NSdsl
join:2002-12-18
Danvers, MA
| What is that saying...
"With Democracy you get the government you deserve".
In my town, it seems anything that generates tax revenues gets rubber-stamped. They give in to developers but hammer the homeowner who wants to build a simple shed.
In Massachusetts the economic drivers appear to be largely technology, biotech and healthcare. I am surprised this state is not more aggressively building out the infrastructure necessary to foster growth in these industries. | |
| | | | | nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
·Comcast
| Re: Local Government but also possibly result in large, unsightly boxes around the neighborhood.
There is a role for local government, unfortunately it twists and morphs into something way beyond what it should be (like multiple PEG channels, jobs for pols relatives, airtime at reelection time, etc). And I must say, around here, comcast has gotten quite good at getting their way (lack of meaningful oversight being one) thru use of these freebies, especially around election time.
Unfortunately all this wonderful hype about competition is still only going to leave us with a duopoly in the wireline space. | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
| Re: Local Government said by nasadude :but also possibly result in large, unsightly boxes around the neighborhood. To this, I not only say "Bring It On" but i would even offer up a prime spot on my own property if needed so that we could have next generation broadband.
Unsightly equipment seems like a small price to pay for great broadband, considering that the alternative is "crappy" or no broadband.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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MadMANN
Premium
join:2005-08-19
·Comcast
| said by NSdsl :I have been waiting for FIOS for months. Anytime you involve so many local governments you are asking for delays. Go to anytime town meeting and you will see terribly, inefficient government at its worst. We could also eliminate delays in lawmaking by just letting our president make laws without involving congress. Let's just take the democratic process out altogether. It just takes up way too much time. Just put one guy in charge and let him make the rules. Things would get done much quicker.
It's done like that in all of the great countries: Saudi Arabia, Cuba, North Korea. . .
Giving bigger government along with bigger corporations more power to do whatever they want to do on such a large scale is asking for trouble. Wait and see. Take away your local government's negotiating power and see your local taxes raise even more, as if they weren't high enough as it is, or see cutbacks in local programs that were funded by franchise fees.
But, if you want the extra few KBps up and down, I guess it would be worth it, huh? | |
| karlmarx
join:2006-09-18
Nashua, NH
·Fairpoint Communic..
| it will never happen I've called my state reps, and told them in no uncertain terms that this is a horrible idea. I guarantee you that this won't pass. Our reps represent US, not the megacorps. Just look at how well microsoft has done in our state (we run open source everywhere).
There is NO BENEFIT to the consumer. PERIOD. This benefits the megacorps, at the COST of the local towns right to control the cost of cable tv. I only pay 12.00/month for my cable tv, but I just get the basics.
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Stick it to the MAN. Support your local torrent sites. Proudly providing 100mb of upstream for all your TV, Movie, and MP3 needs. | |
| | 
OK
@charter.com
| Re: it will never happen Well, it's been a dud in Texas. over a year now -- and nothing really happening -- other than Charter getting squeezed between Verizon and LightSpeed rollouts. Who'da thought poor 'ol Charter would ever offer 10mbs? (maybe the State Franchise has had had some effect?) | |
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tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by karlmarx : There is NO BENEFIT to the consumer. PERIOD. This benefits the megacorps, at the COST of the local towns right to control the cost of cable tv. I disagree. I think technology makes franchise fees irrelevant.
When CATV was first introduced TV delivery was intimately connected to physical delivery (coax cable). With advent of high speed Internet service delivering TV or radio programs, or anything else for that matter, is no longer coupled to first-mile access network. In the not to distant future it will be entirely feasible for a company to set up shop as either an Internet TV station. Even content aggregation much like CATV MSO's due today could be done anywhere on the planet independent of delivery network.
Both public and private space needs to understand the huge impact of Internet technology. Content/services are no longer coupled to the means of delivery. Change in franchise law will have no impact on rights-of-way (ROW) rental fees. Local communities will still be able to generate revenue based on ROW rental.
/Tom | |
| | chemstoc
join:2001-05-04
Lexington, KY
| said by karlmarx :Our reps represent US, not the megacorps. Just look at how well microsoft has done in our state (we run open source everywhere). ROFLMMFAO ... You are naive, Karlmarx ... Money Talks, Nobody Walks.
Been that way for YEARS ... And as long as you have liberal
representatives who think they know how to spend your money
better than YOU do, it won't change. | |
| devnuller
join:2006-06-10
Hollis, NH
·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Charter Pipeline
| Long term benefits? If Verizon gets this in every state, shouldn't cable companies get the same thing in fairness?
Although I agree some towns take advantage of the quid-pro-quo perks with the franchise agreements, do people believe doing away with this is going to be good in the long term?
This will trigger the removal or costs for town and school networks, studio time, equipment, local channels broadcasting town meetings, etc. Less services or more local taxes.
I think Verizon is a big enough company to play by the same rules that exist today. | |
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ropeguru
Premium
join:2001-01-25
Hollywood, FL
clubs:
| Re: Long term benefits? Not only that, in the past, the locals have demanded more local customer support. Most have a local office close enough by that is you have issues, you can stop by and talk to a real person. With the lack of foresight that state govt tends to have, all these local oficces will go away, the customer will have to call India for support, and when they are screwed over because there problem never gets fixed, they will have no options. At least now when I have had issues with calling the 800 number and not being able to get anything done, I have gone to a local office and been pleasant and gotten issues resolved almost immediately.
With state wide franchises, this will go away and again it will be the consumer that loses.
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FWD#: 223611 | |
| jtel
join:2005-06-28
Bristol, RI | NECTA Cable Front Group NECTA's website states that it is made up of substantially all New England area cable telecommunications companies, however Verizon doesn't appear to be represented. They must still be processing Verizon's membership. | |
| | roachxp
join:2004-05-26
Milford, MA
| Re: NECTA Cable Front Group Down with local approval. I don't want them complained about getting local public access channels. With Comcast we have 3 local in town channels that diplay the same public messages at different time intervals, I don't care about the bake sale on Saturday LOL. | |
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Massachusetts State-Wide Video Franchise
