 
X
join:2003-05-27
Sacramento, CA | wow! experts say that! experts... sponsored by the giants... saying bullshit :/
HOW ORIGINAL! | |
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loserhead
3 Billion Chinese People Can Be Wrong
join:2004-01-01
Ellijay, GA | Re: wow! experts say that! those arent experts!
THOSE ARE LOBBYISTS!! | |
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X
join:2003-05-27
Sacramento, CA | Re: wow! experts say that! i totally agree with you  | |
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| Kairoff
join:2003-06-28
Bothell, WA | Tacoma, Washington seems to be doing just fine and providing excellent service at a much reduced cost as far as I can tell. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T DSL Service
 ·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| If I was a city with crappy monopoly Cable and DSL etc, I'd just let the idea float out that they were looking at building their own system, spend a few dozens of thousands on some network planners, contact some vendors, put out feelers for contracts, etc etc
Result? The local incumbents would immediately straighten up! They'd suddenly start upgrading and rolling out services and lowering prices!
Just string em along for awhile, and soon you'll have much better service.  And let the idea drop, then.
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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LoungeLizard2
join:2003-11-21
Vallejo, CA
1 edit | Transparent And the enlightened people saw through this anti-competition ploy.....I hope | |
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one_bored_si
join:2003-03-10
Montebello, CA
·AT&T Yahoo
| Who cares what they say. Why wait for BellSouth its obivious they dont want to invest in fixing or upgrading their network. It costs money to deploy a fiber network something BellSouth cant even pronounce "fi-ber". Even if BellSouth cant afford to build a fiber network that isnt the residents concern, there is absolutly no reason to wait for private investment if the residents dont mind footing the bill. | |
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amenite
The Soylent - It's People
Premium
join:2002-11-21
Ridgewood, NJ
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| Taking hostages? quote:
Ronald Rizzuto, a professor of finance at the University of Denver who is a senior fellow at the Cable Center's Magness Institute, said governments can only be successful when the incumbent private provider is "holding the community hostage."
And how many communities in the US have more than *one* cable provider? It's amazing the lengths they will go to to misinform, but I guess it's not surprising when there's this much money at stake.
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Time is an abstract concept invented by carbon based life forms to monitor their constant decay.-Thunderclese | |
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| dsampley
join:2001-04-19
Hopkinsville, KY | Re: Taking hostages? If Bellsouth and others spent as much time, money and effort in improving their network as they did in opposing any competation, we would all have 100m Ethernet to the home by now. | |
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| | Vonage User5
join:2004-05-15
Hillsborough, NC | Re: Taking hostages? well put!! | |
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KornyBastich
Premium
join:2004-08-03
Carson, CA
| Ay! Totally agree w/ u. Isn't this one of the reasons why the US can't be as competitive in deploying HSI connections as other countries like S. Korea and Japan? I wonder what would all of these cable and telco companies say if all of a sudden the Feds took up a very strong stance much like the S. Korean gov't did in helping deploy HSI connections to the ppl? | |
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Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY | Crap! I know just what kind of experts they brought in. The kind
defined as a person with a briefcase 50 miles from home.
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»www.gobpl.com | |
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batageek
Slave To The Duopoly
Premium
join:2003-01-25
| Re: Crap! "We recommend both.....fiber AND optic cable!"
Or as put so astutely by one of our locals, "Broadband is dead....wireless is the future!"
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»www.tricitybroadband.com | |
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| | bogey780
join:2004-03-19
Here | Re: Crap! A local paper actually ran a byline that said "crew installing fiber for wireless internet". | |
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nydwarf
join:2001-08-24
St Catharines, ON
1 edit | Well Well Well "Ronald Rizzuto, a professor of finance at the University of Denver who is a senior fellow at the Cable Center's Magness Institute, said governments can only be successful when the incumbent private provider is "holding the community hostage."
If the incumbent is charging high rates, with "lousy" customer service, then a government might be able to take advantage of customer dissatisfaction, Rizzuto said."
I think he just made the case for the munis right there eh??? | |
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Ravnwolf
Forge Your Own Path
join:2001-03-24
Tifton, GA
| Idiots Munis are the only reason for lower cable prices! If we didn't have a cable system in our city to compete with the local cable provider, the citizens would be paying the same high prices as their counterparts in cities just 30 to 40 miles away!
When we started our system almost 5 years ago, you could not get broadband in Tifton, GA. As soon as we went live, suddenly BellSouth started expanding like crazy. About 2 years ago, the other cable company finally finished their over-build and started offering services. If it wasn't for us, none of this would have happened in the last 5 years.
Yeah, failure is inevitable. Give me a *(*&#^# break.
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(Work):Telecommunications Superintendent, City of Tifton (GA) Broadband Cable System; (Home) 3 XP PRO workstations, XP PRO Laptop w/ wireless, XP Home Laptop w/ wireless, Fedora Core 2 Server, Wireless PDA | |
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| mjcrocket
Mjc
join:2000-12-02
Abingdon, MD
| Re: Idiots said by Ravnwolf  :
Munis are the only reason for lower cable prices! If we didn't have a cable system in our city to compete with the local cable provider, the citizens would be paying the same high prices as their counterparts in cities just 30 to 40 miles away!...............
Yeah, failure is inevitable. Give me a *(*&#^# break.
What happens when the existing "big bad" companies decide to match or under cut your prices? How much more can you lower your prices without risk of failing to meet the municipal financial plan? Price wars are inevitable, it takes place in all areas of the commercial world every day! Everyone likes to say municipal systems can't fail; but no one talks about what would happen in the event of a price war! | |
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Ravnwolf
Forge Your Own Path
join:2001-03-24
Tifton, GA
| Re: Idiots Our competitors have to survive just like we do. Fair competition won't allow them to go below what it costs them to provide the services, which are basically the same as our costs. Plus, our goal is not necessarily to beat them just on price, but to provide better customer service and technical support, which we do. When our customers call us for support, they love the fact that they are speaking to someone in their home town instead of someone 4 states away that couldn't care less about their problem. We know our customers by their names, not their account numbers.
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(Work):Telecommunications Superintendent, City of Tifton (GA) Broadband Cable System; (Home) 3 XP PRO workstations, XP PRO Laptop w/ wireless, XP Home Laptop w/ wireless, Fedora Core 2 Server, Wireless PDA | |
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hedyd4u
Premium
join:2003-12-16
Schenectady, NY
| If you want to foot the bill then... You want to pay for this then you can pay my share too when the government does it they will subsidise with taxpayer money and I refuse to let them have any more of my money. I pay taxes for enough as it is, if you want to pay the taxes for every person who says no then ok otherwise shut up and quit your crying. Broadband is not an inalienable right, too many people in here act like who cares what anything costs just give it to me and at my price. | |
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garagerock
Premium
join:2002-06-14
Louisville, KY
| Re: If you want to foot the bill then... blah blah blah...this dead horse is crawling with maggots at this point.
do you understand municipal bonds? do you know about subsidies from other levels of gov't that help pay for these rollouts? i grow weary of hearing these tired excuses about taxes. you're gonna pay em anyway, why not try at a local level to put something in place that might:
-employ locals
-provide good service at a good price
sit back and whine all you want, but wouldn't this be better than subsidizing firms to outsource jobs to other countries? what is YOUR solution to these issues? who here ever said broadband is a "right"? | |
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Ravnwolf
Forge Your Own Path
join:2001-03-24
Tifton, GA
| Our system was started by floating municipal bonds and is not subsidized by tax payer money. Subsidizing a telecommunications system from other funds (i.e. enterprise funds, general fund, etc.) isn't exactly legal.
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(Work):Telecommunications Superintendent, City of Tifton (GA) Broadband Cable System; (Home) 3 XP PRO workstations, XP PRO Laptop w/ wireless, XP Home Laptop w/ wireless, Fedora Core 2 Server, Wireless PDA | |
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rationale
join:2004-07-27
30323
| If they are doomed ... then why do they care? I mean, if the MUNI effort is doomed to fail then why would any cable or phone company give a rat's ar$e if they fail? If the MUNI effort fails like they predict then the cable and phone company wins.
These people are obviously smoking crack or snorting coke like their marketing people.
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When logic fails. | |
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| Taber
join:2002-07-31
Millbrae, CA | Re: If they are doomed ... then why do they care? MUNI cable (TV and internet) works where I live.
*shrug* | |
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Kyler6
@iowatelecom.com
| How DOES muni funding work? Call me a moron, but I DON'T understand how muni bonds work...at all. Living in the electric age, I'm obviously not opposed to municipal utilities, I just don't know how the funding works when a city decides to provide cable (my town, by the way, doesn't have a muni cable provider and is left with a private cable monopoly: mediacom.)
If my town needed, say $1 million to start a cable company, where would they get that money from? A sales tax increase? Borrowing from the bank with city property as collateral? A bake sale? What?
Like I said, I'm a moron, but I do know that competetion is good. If there is some way for my town to do it, I'd appreciate help on the funding issue. | |
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"Experts" Slam Munis
