[RTC List] Time Warner and Embarq can't compete with city-owned ISP, trying to outlaw it

[JBilderback]

William Van Hefner wrote:
> Just because a municipality can offer service for less money, doesn't mean
> that their operating costs are lower. Unlike the government, private
> businesses can't print their own money or accumulate huge debts without
> going out of business. Inefficiency is simply hidden by being passed on to
> the taxpayers. While a city may very well be able to offer "cheap cable",
> that same city is also likely to raise property or sales taxes to cover
> the added overhead. Try finding any municipality that makes a profit, or
> even breaks even on such a project that hasn't amassed a huge amount of
> debt or raised taxes. You won't find any.
>
>   
I admit that I didn't consider that they might be providing the service 
at less than cost.

I Humboldt County's case ... if there's no one able to tackle expanding 
Wireless internet beyond AT&T DSL borders
and Cox's cable borders then I'd be happy see a government entity tackle 
it if they think they can. If this were
a joint venture with someone like 101NetLink which has obviously 
invested a lot of time, $ and effort in this direction,
then great.

It irks me that the likes of AT&T and the cable companies are given 
monopolies (pretty much?) and then are permitted to
pick all of the low hanging fruit and leave the rest for ?? (who?) to 
pick up.


> If you want a perfect example of what I am talking about, just look at the
> case of iProvo. Initially, residents there may have gotten "cheap
> internet", but it ended up costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars
> that they will be paying off (at interest) for probably the next 40 years.
>  It was the largest municipal fiber to the home project in the country to
> date. The city was eventually forced to sell the shipwreck ISP at a huge
> loss in order to keep from losing tens of millions of additional taxpayer
> dollars. The company that purchased iProvo has lost so much money that
> they have been missing installment payments to the city lately. Trying to
> turn around such a hugely mismanaged government project and make a profit
> on it has proven nearly impossible. These days, customers get crappy
> service at rates that aren't anywhere near competitive. Just try doing a
> Google search on iProvo, and you'll see what I mean.
>
>   
I'll look for iProvo.
Perhaps fiber wasn't the best answer.
Perhaps micro trenching along highway 299 with grant money isn't either.