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Killing Muni-Broadband Bans First Step to Helping U.S. Broadband

Motherboard has a good read on how large ISP lobbyists not only push for those awful laws we're all familiar with that prohibit towns from wiring themselves (even in cases where nobody else will). These rights-eroding state laws and sweetheart local deals are just a symptom of the country's duopoly protectionist mindset, which is usually disguised as adoration for free markets (which in reality are anything but free), then buried under the rubble of intellectually-stagnant partisan fisticuffs.

While it's no secret that ISP lobbyists are a major reason why U.S. broadband is so competitively stagnant, the piece does a nice job highlighting how general cluelessness in many cities is also lending a helping hand in keeping better broadband at bay:

quote:
San Francisco's average internet speeds don't even rank in the top 100 municipalities in the country, but, like many other places, most of the city is wired with municipal fiber that's used by government officials, police stations, and city colleges. In 2008, the city made some of that network available to low-rise public housing projects, but still doesn't offer fiber to its other residents.

"We've met with them several times over the past three years, but they can't figure out how to work with a local company," Alex Menendez, who helps run MonkeyBrains, a small ISP based in the city, told me. "They don't run a business and can't figure out how to sell it, how to price it. We would love to do fiber to the home, but it doesn't make sense for us to use the city's at the current pricing."


Granted I've been noting for a decade that the first serious step to improving broadband competition is to stop letting uncompetitive ISPs write awful state law, but new laws continue to pop up on a regular basis using the same old stale, broken foundational logic. That is: involving government in helping to provide better broadband is the very worst sort of devilry, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with letting lumbering duopolies write laws and bribe their passage to keep prices high, service poor, and competition at bay.

The good news is that Google Fiber, even if it's never going to be a major national ISP player, has helped move the conversation forward -- bringing greater attention to the dissatisfaction with the status quo while helping educate towns and cities on how to improve their broadband fortunes. In turn, more people seem to finally be realizing that these awful ISP-written laws that erode local rights are, for lack of a more technical term, immensely idiotic.
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tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

rethink possible

if it can be done in the Midwest and deep south.. then it can be done anywhere..
you just need to get rid of the lobbyists and "RED" tape...

besides, most of these laws were written in the era when electricity and phone wires were non-standardized and overran large cities such as NYC so some common sense had to be imposed. nowadays, this solution DOES NOT APPLY to large modern cities with organized infrastructures. there is plenty of conduit access available and rights of way which can be utilized in urban areas as well as rural ones.

This is not going to happen with putting 1 or 2 more carriers in the deployment of last mile infrastructure!!

»www.uh.edu/engines/nycan ··· ires.jpg

DJ
Premium Member
join:2001-06-13
Opelika, AL

1 recommendation

DJ

Premium Member

It can work if managed properly

My new hometown, Opelika AL, completed their fiber rollout to the entire city last year, and has so far been a success. My decision to move here was based partly on the municipal fiber offering, which the community voted for to compete with Charter and AT&T.

So far, for six months of having the service, there's been zero noticeable down time and 110% of advertised speeds at all times. Community response to the quality of services, and customer service has been vastly positive. Any calls for technical or billing assistance is all handled locally, with little to no hold time.

The only improvement they need to make is higher speed to price ratios. For fiber, it's a little pricey when compared to other municipals in the region. But it is a new service not even a year old, and all changes to the service are decided locally, so I wouldn't be surprised to see new increased speeds once Charter bumps the area to 60mbps.

fg8578
join:2009-04-26
San Antonio, TX

fg8578

Member

Re: It can work if managed properly

said by DJ:

My new hometown, Opelika AL, completed their fiber rollout to the entire city last year, and has so far been a success.

I'm glad it has worked for you. Did you have a choice of ISPs? Or did the city contract with a single ISP to provide Internet access service?

DJ
Premium Member
join:2001-06-13
Opelika, AL

DJ

Premium Member

Re: It can work if managed properly

Sorry, just seeing your post a month later.

Opelika has Charter and AT&T dsl for land based options. Charter is ok with 30/4mbps standard, AT&T is pathetic with a top tier of 6mbps .

We also have 4G LTE from all the major carriers as well.

Also, in response to Charter's pending speed boost to 60/4mbps, Opelika Power is beginning to boost some bundled customers to 60/60 from 30/30. Hopefully they'll be boosting all customers in the near future as well.
ncbill
Premium Member
join:2007-01-23
Winston Salem, NC

ncbill

Premium Member

can't subsidize from other revenue streams

IIRC, here the law is that munis can't subsidize the build-out or operation from other sources - e.g. no adding $5/month to the water bill to cover the cost of a new fiber network.

It's 'fair' to those using city services but who would nor pay for broadband, but with such a restriction in place there's much less of an incentive for the muni ever to offer one.

firephoto
Truth and reality matters
Premium Member
join:2003-03-18
Brewster, WA

firephoto

Premium Member

Re: can't subsidize from other revenue streams

said by ncbill:

IIRC, here the law is that munis can't subsidize the build-out or operation from other sources - e.g. no adding $5/month to the water bill to cover the cost of a new fiber network.

It's 'fair' to those using city services but who would nor pay for broadband, but with such a restriction in place there's much less of an incentive for the muni ever to offer one.

So to ensure an equal market we should make sure all broadband providers don't charge different rates depending on the alternate services that are subscribed to in order to avoid certain customers subsidizing others who choose more options thus making their own basic service more costly.

I know that will never happen but this "no subsidize" bs is strictly applied to broadband offered by public entities.

The solution for this and every other act of bribery called lobbying is to make the only form of lobbying legal the kind where an individual lobbies on behalf of their own interests, performed by themselves and not a proxy, and all lobbying is public record.
tkdslr
join:2004-04-24
Pompano Beach, FL

tkdslr to ncbill

Member

to ncbill
Why not?? If telecommuting reduces the transportation and road maintenance requirements, then we should shift the funds to make it happen.

Likewise in AGW world, every bit of energy conservation is step in the right direction. A national fibre deployment would be a big step in that direction.

In a nutshell, it is government's duty to adopt policies that benefit society in general. Even if it looks like that policy may benefit just a few initially.
ConstantineM
join:2011-09-02
San Jose, CA

1 recommendation

ConstantineM

Member

Why cities in Cali continue raising taxes instead of leasing out fibre?

quote:
San Francisco's average internet speeds don't even rank in the top 100 municipalities in the country, but, like many other places, most of the city is wired with municipal fiber that's used by government officials, police stations, and city colleges. In 2008, the city made some of that network available to low-rise public housing projects, but still doesn't offer fiber to its other residents.
What's upsetting is cities like SF apparently have so much fibre that was obviously laid out using our taxpayer money, and then instead of selling it to local ISPs like MonkeyBrains, they simply sit on it, all whilst continuing to run out of money in their budgets, and continuing to initiate various tax increases for everyone. WTF?

alchav
join:2002-05-17
Saint George, UT

alchav

Member

Re: Why cities in Cali continue raising taxes instead of leasing out fibre?

said by ConstantineM:

quote:
San Francisco's average internet speeds don't even rank in the top 100 municipalities in the country, but, like many other places, most of the city is wired with municipal fiber that's used by government officials, police stations, and city colleges. In 2008, the city made some of that network available to low-rise public housing projects, but still doesn't offer fiber to its other residents.
What's upsetting is cities like SF apparently have so much fibre that was obviously laid out using our taxpayer money, and then instead of selling it to local ISPs like MonkeyBrains, they simply sit on it, all whilst continuing to run out of money in their budgets, and continuing to initiate various tax increases for everyone. WTF?

Articles like the one in Motherboard are misleading, they make it sound like Fiber is just laying there waiting to be used and connected by FM. People think Dark Fiber can just be lit up and used by anyone. Unused or Dark Fiber goes from A to B, and it's to add more capacity or spliced and connected to a location along the path. All this is done in the planning stages, you just can't re-route or pull the Fiber to connect another Provider like MonkeyBrains.

Now in my Grand Vision it would be possible in a Muni-Fiber Project to add a POP (Point-of-Presence,) then Providers like MonkeyBrains could terminate there and if someone on the Network wants their Service it could be added.
WhatNow
Premium Member
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC

WhatNow

Premium Member

Re: Why cities in Cali continue raising taxes instead of leasing out fibre?

Now in my Grand Vision it would be possible in a Muni-Fiber Project to add a POP (Point-of-Presence,) then Providers like MonkeyBrains could terminate there and if someone on the Network wants their Service it could be added.

This is how it should be done. Towns need to stay out of the content business. I would prefer the power company or other private company build a dark fiber network and the let ISPs, cable and telcos light it up to each customer. Even DirecTV and Dish may decide to light the fiber over sat dishes. This is the only way to get real competition.

The problem I see is if some group in town decides they don't like some programming and content starts to get banned. The other is at first the service is great but the network is not maintained any better then streets and sewer don't expect much. A private company may be just as bad but then they everything. The Fiber in a muni is just another budget item in a big basket.
biochemistry
Premium Member
join:2003-05-09
92361

1 recommendation

biochemistry

Premium Member

Politicians

With the amount of porn that politicians download, you think they would be in favor of any method that brought faster internet speeds to their homes.

linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium Member
join:2002-12-03
United State

linicx

Premium Member

This is part of the story

Creative writing muddles facts. I paid attention a long time ago to broadband roll out. This was years before 4/1 was a reality in small to mid-size markets. AT&T is an example.

State A dominated by Bell wanted to expand broadband in the state. Bell spun a Tinker Bell story where everyone was happy but only if a competing telco that wanted to offer local phone service was denied. The federal law was ignored. State A got the broadband that was awful. Tinker Bell was a lie and the state had no recourse. Twenty years later it is in the same state of unhappiness, slow download speeds and and unfinished in rural areas. This is common. .

State B has a large dominate city that stacks the legislative branch with many from this city. Ergo the majority of rules passed look good on paper, work well in the city, but do little to help anyone who does not live in the dominant city, Other than in DC, and in writer's minds, do ISPs write laws or make local policy. The telephone companies do.

Where I live the cable company IS a a telephone company just as much as Verizon is a phone company. The only duopoly is in how it works. FCC rules allow a telephone company to provide cable in a protected territory where a competitor telco operates. However it cannot provide wireline service. It can only offer VoIP. And while the law allow competition, it never happens, as these companies have 100 year contracts which guarantees phone and other services. Written or not, it is understood outside competition will cause the contracts to be null and void, in which case one or both will leave the city.

It really does not make any difference what FCC or DC does. The impact, on how small towns in rural America do business, is minimal if at all. Like it or not, the good ol' boys club is very much alive and well in no-name America.