Posted on 04/29/2009 7:45:06 AM PDT by Clint Williams
An anonymous reader writes
"What happens when a new ISP is started somewhere in the United States that completely blows out of the water all the other ISPs in the area, in terms of price and performance? Apparently, that question is being answered in North Carolina, where Greenlight Inc., a company started by a city government, is trying to offer faster, more reliable, and cheaper Internet service to the local residents. Time Warner and Embarq can't compete. So they are not only lobbying the state government to destroy the upstart competition, but are now using push polling methods to gain support, across the two cities that could benefit from the new ISP, for the 'Level the playing field' legislation they got introduced in the legislature."A local news outlet provides coverage more friendly to the incumbents' point of view.
This country is so corrupt, it's toast.
The real competition is for political influence. Especially with ‘rats in increasing control.
There is another side to the story. This is a city government that is running a business competing with private companies. In order to keep their price for internet down and corner the market they can subsidize it with increased property tax revenues, utility service increases, trash collection fees...........
“a company started by a city government”
WTF? why is the gov’t in any way shape or form doing this? Cheaper because they don’t pay the taxes, and rip off the taxpayers to build the equipment?
Because the major internet providers refused to provide such service in the towns in question.
*The real irony, of the situation is that a recent report, by local newspaper IndyWeek indicates that the city first approached Time Warner Inc. and Embarq with a request for faster internet for residents and local businesses. The cable companies refused, unwilling to cut into their profit margins. So the city took it upon itself, and in the end found out it could sell the service to citizens at a fraction of the cost.*
Some local enterprenuer missed the boat- The governemnt should have sent it out for bids instead of doing it themsleves.
But now that it is done, how do they get rid of it? Is it in the local government charter to provide such services?
Actually, I did some reading, and tax money isn’t being used to fund this, it’s funded by customers, just like a private company.
Also, this is something that the town wanted since the cable companies refused to when the town wanted to work something out to get better value.
Anything with government attached to it; I would be wary opting into it.
Internet Welfare. It's goes nicely with the new Mortgage Welfare, the new Auto Welfare, the new Health Care Welfare, and all the other massive welfare programs.
Isn't that special.
Don't worry folks. The tax slaves will cover all the associated cost. Soon, the government will take care of everything for you.
("No man, rich or poor, free or bond, will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast.")
If they want to get rid of it they sell it. Their is no good reason for the US to have such slow broadband - none at all.
The users, not the tax payers, are paying for this. Had the other providers upped their speeds this would not have been necessary.
The upstart company is funded by a city govt so you have to ask yourself is it profitable or subsidized by the taxpayer? If a govt entity uses taxpayer money to run legitimate businesses out of business then you do have an Atlas Shrugged moment, just not in the way you envision it.
All the politically correct laws will apply. You will think as you're told to think. You will read what they allow you to read.
Once the government gets involved in Internet access, it becomes regulated. The door is then open to the regulation of them all - "for our own good".
The politicians always come in with ideas disguised as a blessing, but things never end up that way. The blessing always becomes a curse.
Yeah. Just like health care costs. If only the doctors had charged less, we wouldn't be facing Health Care Welfare today, right? The Hillary would have changed her mind about a fascist take over, left health care alone, and supported our free market system. (not!).
If only the parents would have been more supportive of their children's education, the liberals wouldn't have taken over the public school system. The radicals would have never entered the schools, and the children would be learning nothing but academics today. (not)
If only the banks would have given cheaper housing loans. If only the car companies had lowered their prices for the poor, if only.....if only...
Good thing the government got involved in all these things. Imagine the horror if the free market system were allowed to control all this. Oh, the horror, the horror. Thank goodness they're getting their hands on the computers, right? They'll save us from ourselves.
Why didn’t the *freemarket* install the fiber?
I don't know about you but unless there is absolutely no option, I'll keep supporting the private companies over government run monopolies.
If a group of citizens want to get together and fund and ISP alternative, I'm all for it. Just keep the government out.
I have seen how some cities (one just a few miles from Wilson, NC) managed to stay within the letter of the law while funding cemetary maintenace with money from their electric sales, but had to increase electric rates because 'the cost of electricity has increased and we just cannot afford eat the increase'. In other words, instead of raising taxes they raise electric rates and blame it on the electric producers and the public utility commission.
Maybe there wasn't enough demand for it to be profitable. Because of a few complainers, many will suffer.
Homosexuals are @ 2% of the population. Why wouldn't the church unite them in Holy matrimony? They complained, too, and now the thought police are running the show nation wide. A few complainers damned the the entire country.
Funny that it is profitable in most other countries.
We don't live in other countries.
“The users, not the tax payers, are paying for this. Had the other providers upped their speeds this would not have been necessary.”
You 100% sure of this? Really?
Because this is the 2nd time I’ve seen it posted I’m throwing the BS card. Wherever this is starting it’s hogwash.
I work for a large networking company, that being said I know very well what it costs to run networks. And I can tell you all right now, that the equipment required to drop Fiber into a home plus running the Fiber (Installation, labor, and terminations) is not cheap. Depending on whether it’s aerial or underground ranges from $20,000 per installed mile to as high as $500,000 mile if in a major metro area because of permits right of way management etc.
But Gosh... guess what it’s government and they don’t have to worry about right of way... seems fair already!
Add to this the cost of gateway devices to be attached to each home, the switch/router to be installed, plus the termination point this will be going to and we are easily in the range of between 2.5-3k per port/drop. What is very nice about this from a vendor perspective is I know I’ll be selling more gear every 5-7 years as it gets End-of-support so now we have a churn of equipment.
Now we get a “Public” company who is issuing bonds (What are bonds? and how are they paid back to investors?) to build a project. This project will hopefully cover 47,000 people... of course the take rate so far has been around 15% oh and it looks as if they are providing 24/7 manning of a NOC, so that pretty much means what minimum of 10 full time bodies for a 3 shift service? Add to this that not everyone uses the internet, I know shocking but very true. It’s not a trivial amount of people either, and Granny sitting at home knitting just doesn’t care. This can be between 30-40% of the population. And now evaluate what has been said...
“Will my taxes go up because this project is so expensive?
No. The funds for constructing the fiber network come from bonds issued by the City of Wilson. Tax revenues are not being used to fund this project in any way.”
How do they compute that it will generate enough income to payback the bonds hmm?? I’d love to see the business plan. Because I know another municipality who tried this same crap. (Zipp Fiber optic) and they are so far in the Red it’s spilling over everywhere, and why? Because they magically planned on a 100% take rate for service!
Gosh, I bet Time Warner would love that type of take rate!
Even if you take the equipment that will be necessary to build the NOC, provide for minimum of 10 full-time Customer Service people, and not to mention the other government goons who will be apart of this and what to you think the annual cost of labor will be? I’m going to throw a dart... Government workers I’m thinking around $18.00 - $26.00/hour. I think it’s pretty safe to say around $50k, maybe not quite but it will be more because it’s a government job. So benefits will be swell, and maybe even a nice city pension! So 10 bodies * 50k, plus a manager, plus a coordinator, plus a supervisor + + +... Easily Easily $1,000,000/year. That’s just to start with the support and management. Then you have a team to INSTALL the gear...
It’s all fraud. The government doing a project like this is simply wrong. If the business case was there don’t you think a competitor would have come in? I mean think about it. It’s because the government can lie about the business case and no one will hold them accountable because they’ll have moved on by the time the rooster comes home to crow. Then it becomes all of the constituents problem.
Sorry, I’m off the soapbox now, I’m a firm believer of “Government stay the hell out of my way” so know where I am coming from.
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