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Verizon On Munis: 'More Power To Them'
Quite a change in position from 2004...
Over the years, Verizon has been no friend of municipal broadband, lobbying for laws that derailed community broadband, resulting in some bad press once people woke up to what was going on. With the general shift in muni-broadband towards public-private models, and the deployment of Verizon FTTH, the telco is certainly less intimidated, and they've changed their tune -- at least publicly. "If municipalities want to put their tax money into that, wonderful, more power to them," said Verizon's PR master Tom Tauke at this week's Technology Policy Summit. "These things take a lot of money, and Wall Street doesn’t reward it at all." Tauke and other industry folks also discussed whether we need a national broadband strategy at the Summit.
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Matt3
All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC

Matt3

Premium Member

Why should they be scared?

Why should they be scared? They are already running fiber to the home, so they would have a very, VERY compelling argument against muni FTTH.

Now, AT&T is the one who should be scared witless of muni FTTH.

AnonProxy
Premium Member
join:2001-05-12

AnonProxy

Premium Member

Re: Why should they be scared?

The issue will be that muni service is a no refuse service.
People would get the service if they wanted it or not and still would pay for it via taxes.

They would then have to spend MORE money to get the extra service from Verizon. You are assuming that munis would all run fiber.

SRFireside
join:2001-01-19
Houston, TX

SRFireside

Member

Re: Why should they be scared?

That's assuming Verizon won't have the opportunity to sell their services over the municipal infrastructure. Many of the muni fiber rollouts only lay out the wiring, but the municipality isn't the ISP. Some make agreements to one provider like Earthlink, but others will keep access wide open.

If this is the case then all Verizon has to do is pay the line charges to offer their FTTH services. If not then they simply build out their network in the competing area and compete.

Yauch
join:2005-06-24

Yauch

Member

Re: Why should they be scared?

Not to be a stick in the mud, but Karl mention a rise in public/private network partnerships and now your mentioning "Many" are running an open network. I'm having trouble finding a single example of one.

Maybe it's just my nearsighted vision, but I can show you 7 muni/public funded ISPs within 100 miles of my house, not one willing to share the pipes.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

1 recommendation

hottboiinnc4

Member

Re: Why should they be scared?

UTPOIA is open to many providers including AT&T. The Cities do not provide the service at all. Just the actual network.
Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA

1 recommendation

Ahrenl to AnonProxy

Member

to AnonProxy
Not if they're built with Revenue municipal bonds.

Saying taxes will increase is almost FUD at this point. I haven't seen any large build out to be funded with general obligation bonds yet; and I doubt we ever will.. Not in this credit market, and global glut of cash.
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88

Member

vz

I think VZ will want to get into the muni contractor business. Also if you think about it, almost every muni wifi network users telco backhaul, if not cable co, to SOME degree, unless there is a muni fiber/data network, which is rare, or backbone providers have built limited last mile to the building lines. Trophos will reduce the number of backhauls, but not eliminate them. Muni wifi isnt a meshed FON folks.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

largest network, where it counts..

MUNIs will have to play in verizon's neck of the woods some day, or AT&T's or the cable companies.. which means they really they will have to buy services from one of the major players and interconnect and their "cost of doing business" will be comparable to or GREATER THAN their own..

so, go ahead and make a fool of yourselves... see if you can turn a tidy profit in these triple play markets..
Now granted, there are micro pockets where this would make sense.. but not to rural farmland usa, not to places where the established routes of internet backbones are hundreds of miles away and show no signs of routing to black hole, usa.

Yauch
join:2005-06-24

Yauch

Member

Re: largest network, where it counts..

That's crazy talk! Just because the average cost for a dedicated link is ~$1700/Mb/sec out here in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean my city shouldn't run 100Mb to every household. It's like a road and stuff, money is nothing compared to the utopian future.

JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium Member
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD

1 recommendation

JTRockville

Premium Member

Muni wireless would be a WONDERFUL accompanyment to FiOS

I'd love to have both.
soothsayer15
join:2002-03-01
Irving, TX

soothsayer15

Member

Word ofMouth

Word of Mouth from friend and relatives that have fiber optic service in other areas will help Verizon sell fiber in their own area. Few towns are gonna spend taxpayer dollars to provide a service someone else is already providing.
jdracer47
join:2005-10-16
Auburn, PA

jdracer47

Member

Death of the BFRR

My guess is that Verizon probably wouldn't mind Act 183 dying and taking the Bona Fide Retail Request with it. I know that a lot of small communities (mine included) have forced them to deploy DSL at substantial costs to them. It is all about the dollars after all, how many customers will they lose to munis compared to how much it costs to deploy service to Rural PA.

Maybe I am full of crap, just thinking out of the box.

batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ

batterup

Premium Member

Government run and tax payer supported.

Verizon should welcome municipalities providing broadband. Taxes go up service goes down, Ma Bell we are sorry, please come back and save us.