Posted on 02/24/2014 7:28:50 AM PST by Dallas59
In 1982, rock star Pete Townsend asked Americans to call their cable operators and, "Demand your MTV. I want my MTV!" It's 2014, and two-minute music videos on a cable channel have given way to high-definition movies, concerts and sports streamed live to your TV, computer and phone. So where the heck is my superfast gigabit Internet access? Who do I even call?
We know it's technically feasible. Google GOOG +0.85% Fiber, with speeds up to 100 times faster than the basic broadband provided by your cable or phone company, is already up and running in Kansas City, Mo.; Austin, Texas; and Provo, Utah. And last week, Google announced it's in talks with 34 more cities. Even Chattanooga has gigabit broadband in 56,000 homes and businesses provided by the city-owned electric company, of all things
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
'Last month a bill was introduced in the Kansas legislature, pushed by the Kansas Cable Telecommunications Association and presumably Time Warner Cable, to outlaw cities from selling cable and Internet services or even partnering with private service providers. Meanwhile, AT&T is slowing Google Fiber deployment in Austin by denying access to its utility poles. The incumbents' strategy seems to be kill the demon seed in its crib.'
That would be nice.
But I remember downloading songs off Napster at 3.5 kb/second back in the day. If it got up to 5 kb I thought I was zooming! Then 20-30 minutes later I had a “free” song. Brings back memories.
So with that in mind I don’t complain too much about 15 mb/second.
Google started their fiber service in Kansas City, KS. Have they expanded to Kansas City, MO already?
It’s always the same: incumbents who have the most to lose resist change. The makers of buggy-whips are still upset that automobiles were allowed to use the roads...
Change takes time. Things can happen that speed up the process but whining to your Congressman isn’t one of them.
As age slowly puts the brakes on the ol' sensory receptors, I'll prolly recall dialup for a moment, and opt for letting the current 'pretty fast' be fast enough . . .
Yes.
LOL I remember that too... I think, that's why it why it was called "Napster". Cause, you start some downloads, go take a "Nap"... then, come back and see how many (if any) completed successfully!
Is there any particular need for cities to pick which firms can deliver internet services to local residents?
AT&T’s move makes absolute good sense, and no rational person who has payed any attention whatsoever to the moves they have made over the last five years can criticize it at all.
They aren’t really obstructing anything.
It’s slow because Algore is focused on other things and cannot dedicate time to invent it.
Google is expanding out from Kansas City, KS as quickly as they can, moving into whatever suburbs will allow them to do so. Their crews are working at maximum capacity. As you might expect, the Democrats who control Kansas City, MO want their cut of the action, so they are left on the sidelines for the time being. The cable companies aren’t happy either.
I agree with that. I haven’t read the KS law but just based on the paragraph here it doesn’t appear to prevent businesses using any method of providing service. It just says they can’t do it with local gov partnership.
I’m glad to have such services stay profit driven and not vote driven.
Why bother? They’ll just clog the bandwidth with more ads and pop-ups.
I have uverse internet at 20 mbs which supports 8 devices on WiFi along with recording 3 hd and 1 sd video streams
Whatever bandwidth is provided they’ll find a way to slog it down. I am watching Netflix/Hulu in “sorta” HD now and I can not complain about the picture one bit. But full HD will take more band width and 4k? Forget about it.
Thats’ 8 million pixels at 30 frames per second. What’s that...240 MB/sec? Wow!
Here in the UK, you have some choice. British Telecom is required to sell capacity on its lines to other companies, so theoretically, there a many DSL providers in any area. If you’re in a Virgin Media Cable area, you get either Cable Modem or Fibre Optic. My area has Fibre and we get 120Mb speeds for £29/MO, unlimited use. It’s so much faster than DSL or Cable was back in the States.
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