Your ISP's Worst Nightmare... - Comments Page 1

Thanks Bob, for a great article.

I'm going to investigate this subject further.

I live in Longmont Colorado and I am looking forward the installation of Gigabit internet service in my part of city in Q1 2016. I am just tire of Comcast low speed, high price, and poor service. Bye bye Comcast.

I live in rural Arizona.Century Link is sooooo slow and quite high priced.I found a local place.AZAIRNET.Soooo Fast!

Google has "volunteered" to put in their broadband service in Jacksonville, FL, probably to head-off any possible broadband service being offered by the city. However, we've already learned that it's only going into new developments and more affluent areas of the county....exactly like ATT has done with their TV "service." So if you're in the ghetto or even in just an old neighborhood which would require a lot of time and money to wire, forget it....you're stuck with the atrociously bad Comcast monopoly.

Hi Bob,
I would absolutely support this if it came to my town (Quincy, MA). I'm getting increasingly tired of the slow, intermittent, and expensive service I get from Comcast.

I really got a sense of how bad service was in the US last March when I spent a couple of weeks in Cuba. Cuba, as you know, has bad and expensive internet because the government is not fond of the population having access to outside information. However, there are a handful of places that get it by old fashioned dial-up, and I happened to be able to use that antique system more than once while I was there. And, in spite of its shortcomings, I was invariably surprised at how much faster it was than what I typically get in the US. It's true that it was more expensive and it's true that Cuba needs to upgrade to be a part of the outside world, but it's still amazing that what is generally considered a backward system there is still faster than the much vaunted "First World" system we have here.

Stan

I live in Mississauga Ontario Canada.
Boy, would I happy if my municipality would offer internet service. I pay $56.96 for a 50 Mbps internet service. This was a Promo rate. Without the Promo I would be paying $75.95.

Time Warner Cable's 15$ per month 2mb/sec is fine for me.

Very interesting Bob. Thanks
Mike

When a Municipality becomes involved, the taxpayers lose money. Water, Natural Gas, Real Estate Texas, Schools all have gone up. Reduction of Police, EMS and Fire Departments have caused an increase in Insurance Rates.

Potholes have not been repaired, Roads and Bridges are Deteriorating. Leans are placed against people who can't afford to pay their Taxes, while Corporations owe hundreds of Millions.

Over half the Drivers have expired or no License and members of City Council defend them because they are to poor to pay for them, but they own a car. We had WiFi in some low income areas, the private operators the city contracted with pulled out leaving cell tower unused.

No way would I ever vote for my City to allow taking over from Comcast, Dish and any other Satellite Companies. Even the much hated Verizon Fios.

Then there is the question of the city having to wire 300,000 Homes and Bldgs and cost involved. The cables run along Telephone and Electric Poles which are not City Property, they will have to lease the right to use. It took more than 5 years for the 3 cable Companies to wire their area. Two went broke and Comcast took over.

I am tired of hearing that people are cutting their Cable service and watching movies on their cell phones. This will only increase of phone rates, hopefully only for those who do so instead of charging those who do not do so.

No way should the City Compete with Private Companies.

I wish I had the time to research this more. It would be interesting to see how many of these municipal efforts are set up more as a CO-OP as opposed to a Municipal utility company.

Is the biggest deterrent to rural areas the literal cost of the 'main trunk' coming to the area? Many cities here in my state are 100+ miles away from a major city. I would imagine the cost to travel to one rural city would be extravagant.

At first this seems like a good idea, who wouldn't want cheaper IPS service? We have an example of this in a local area and it is not what you at all what you I have depicted. The idea in concept was great, but then since it was a goverment thing it had to be fair so how can we make it available to those who "can't afford it". I know we will tax those evil "rich" people who have too much money, but we can't offer all that and still compete with the big companies. Some we make fees and regulations so the big evil companies like Verizon, Comcast, have to go else where. Then you are left with one 3rd rate provider with no competitors. We know the government does so well at this kind of this just look at Social Security and Medicare. Leave it alone goverment should not mess with business, they can't do it well so the just raise taxes to "patch" it.

We get 100MBit/sec from Virgin in the UK for $51 equivalent. about $25 for BB and $25 for a telephone line rental but we only pay this temp[orarily to get a better deal on our TV package. The basic BB charge is $25. Soon we will get up to 150mbits/sec for this price.

Hi Bob,

I have my ISP from my phone Co cost less and I run at 144.5 mbps which uploads and downloads fast

Our town, Alameda, CA, tried this several years ago. What Comcast did was undercut the municipal service price and it finally failed. The local fiber wire and customer base was then sold to Comcast at a rock bottom price further costing the city a bundle of money. To make this successful, a city needs to have a monopoly like in Ashland, Oregon. The big providers can afford to under cut the price of the municipality and not even notice the loss.

Great Article. In Piedmont California I only have choice between ATT and Comcast. I've tried them both and they both have slow speeds for $110/month. Time for Piedmont to start its own system.

Sounds like the way to go and hopefully soon.

Nice article Bob.

I live in Longmont and own an Engineering Design and Consulting business here for the past 11 years. I will be able to get 1 Gbps internet service for $50 a month for life if we sign up within a specified time. I think it's 90 days or so of availability.

The more local control we have over utilities the better. Internet service is a required utility in today's modern world.

Longmont is a great place to live!

Keep up the good work, Bob!

At my home, just north of Boston, I switched from Comcast to Verizon, hoping for some financial relief. I soon found my WiFi for my TV lacking and Streaming video kept cutting out. Verizons answer was I need to Upgrade. Hmm.. Ok but still no good. Next was I need a better router (for $199. more). Goodbye Verizon. Now I am back at the mercy of Comcast. Wall St. wins either way.

Al. S Your political leanings are evident in your post. Most of the ills you describe affect every city or town in the US, and I doubt all the blame falls on dealing with private companies. Plus most of your city services that many take as a right and for granted have shown to be a disaster when farmed out to private companies. Fire and police departments, snow removal, trash collection, etc.

Way back when (and even now in some areas of the country) you had to "hire" or contract with a private company to get someone to respond to a fire on your property (you would have to post a sign out front much like the ones you see nowadays for alarm system). If you didn't have a contract, you watched your place burn to the ground.

Sure, in some cases such "for the people" city services have problems, poor service, bureaucratic nightmares, but I suspect there are far more good deals than bad. Right now our only internet and TV options in our area are Private Companies, and they are taking us to the cleaners with exorbitant rates, and companies Comcast have the reputation for being some of the worst.

Private enterprise SHOULD have to compete with alternatives. That's the way things are designed to work in the US. And may the best one in each case win, based on how well they respond to the customers, not the stockholders.

UTOPIA is a group of Utah cities that joined together to form a state-of-the-art network. We are community-owned and are incorporated into the blueprint of each city we operate in. Our 15 member cities are: Brigham City, Cedar City*, Cedar Hills*, Centerville, Layton, Lindon, Midvale, Orem, Payson, Perry*, Riverton*, Tremonton, Vineyard*, and West Valley City.

*UTOPIA services are not available at this time.

The above is a somewhat successful summary. Provo was a financial sinkhole, dropped out of Utopia and sold what had been done to Google Fiber.