ilsr_chris
join:2008-01-29
Saint Paul, MN
| reply to TKJunkMail
Re: Solution to failing Muni-Fi - MORE government & Muni-fiber
We haven't found a project that didn't involve spending more and more taxpayer money by the local gov? Guess you haven't been stalking me.
My first ILSR report detailed one such build: Burlington, Vermont. It is listed on our site at »www.newrules.org/info/bt.html
In fact, as I study these things, I have found that few of these builds never touch taxpayer money. They are built with revenue bonds or lease arrangements. Some have needed taxpayer money and yet I have yet to find a community that really wants to go back to an incumbent de facto monopoly.
They like having tech support from their town that answers they questions. They like faster speeds at lower prices. They like having a comparative advantage to all the places that rely on incumbents for their shared cable systems.
This whole "taxpayer money" argument is an absurd red herring as so few systems ever need it. And those that do need it are still saving consumers and businesses a lot of money by introducing stiff competition and offering faster connections.
Further, we still have an amazing number of people who cannot get any form of broadband. To suggest they should merely wait until some private company deigns to serve them is crazy. |
