Another community making true two way broadband happen, Morristown, TN:
Morristown, Tennessee, population 24,965, is building fiber to the home. According to an article in the Knoxville News Sentinel, the city responded to a doubling of commercial cable TV rates by chartering its municipal utility to build a fiber network. Morristown’s first customers will come on line in June, 2005. The build will cost $18,000,000, or $720 per person, or $1400 per home. The article says
Frank Muto forwarded an interesting look at the ongoing revolving door where officials turn into lobbyists:
Editorial: Throw sand in the revolving door
Two more, this time Democrats
Officials continue to turn into lobbyists at an alarming rate. Gregg Rothschild, key aide to Democrat John Dingell, is becoming a lobbyist for Verizon. Before Dingell, he was John Kerry’s telecom aide. Rothschild took the Dingell job in 2003, replacing Andrew Levin, who in turn had left to lobby for Clear Channel. David Svanda, former Michigan Commissioner, is persuasively arguing on behalf of the AT&T backed VON Coalition. Svanda earned respect for promoting competition in Michigan and leadership among state regulators as President of NARUC. They join a long list, including far too many FCC officials, who went directly into well paid jobs influencing their former colleagues.Does the prospect of such lucrative careers influence the decisions of even ethical officials? Did they modify their actions in the preceding year, wondering if they were affecting their chances of a job? I have no reason to speak ill of either Rothschild of Svanda, both considered ethical. But I know how I am constantly pulled, having to report the news about advertisers that pay my rent, and think top officials do not need their consciences challenged by equivalent temptation if avoidable.
via Dave Farber
“Whoever builds a fiber to the home network is going to have a monopoly – whoever builds it. As a practical matter, I am opposed to monopolies. But I would much rather have a monopoly that I can touch and see and feel and affect, which is [Lafayette, Louisiana municipal utility operator] LUS.”
Via David Isenberg
Madison should be thinking like this as well.
David Isenberg summarizes the latest news from LaFayette, Louisiana’s community fiber network plans (Madison should be so forward thinking!)
Finally, the price tag on the project is $125 million. The population of Lafayette is 116,000. That’s $1077.59 per person. Would you pay $1100 once to have fiber in your town forever after? N.O.B.R.A.I.N.E.R.
Reader David Lehane forwarded several useful links on incumbent telcos & broadband:
- Broadband competition unwinding: the true cost of a “politics of distraction“
- FCC bets on monopolies: Teddy Roosevelt turns over in grave.
- More on Michael Powell & conflicts of interest
Interestingly, we paid to build the original networks that the SBC’s and Bellsouth’s of the world are using as cash cows. Now, with our country quickly falling behind in true 2-way broadband (Japan and Korea offer 30Mbps service for less than $50/month while we’re stuck at speeds in the range of 500kbps to 1.5mbps) some communities have tried to build their own fiber networks. Leslie Cauley visits LaFayette, LA, where the city is trying to build their own fiber network, BUT, legacy telco Bellsouth is trying to kill the project. Slashdot discussion.
David Isenberg comments on Cauley’s article.
The handset will work over hotspot networks allowing Vonage customers to use their service while roaming. Boingo and Vonage had a deal in place to test out VoIP over Wi-Fi hotspots, but it?s unclear here in the late evening how that ties together. Also, Vonage?s site doesn?t yet list the announcement, so we don?t know if they?ve partnered with various networks to ease authentication.
Skype is another option.
Carol Ellison: “Opinion: Pennsylvania has given Big Broadband too much control over municipal wireless installations. Other states should not repeat the error.”
The holidays, it seems, can’t pass without a Scrooge story.
This year’s comes from the state of Pennsylvania where early this month Gov. Edward Rendell [Democrat] inked legislation that effectively left the future development of municipal wireless broadband services in that state in the hands of Big Broadband.
The bill lets incumbent carriers (in Pennsylvania, that would be Verizon) determine whether Pennsylvania cities can create? and charge for? municipal wireless access services. The new law came hot on the heels of Philadelphia’s announcement that it planned to do just that. Now, it’s up to Verizon to exercise thumbs-up or thumbs-down on Philadelphia’s wireless ambitions. The company claims it won’t scotch the city’s plan. But what happens when Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton or Harrisburg decide to unwire?
Via Glenn Fleishman. I have a bit of hope that someone other than SBC will win Madison’s WiFi RFP.
Extending optical fiber into the home wasn’t labor intensive, she said. The most crucial part of the experiment was the testing to make sure the new equipment and network were reliable, she said.
The next step for SBC is to begin a $4 billion installation project that will put fiber in the company’s networks throughout the country. Connecticut is very much part of that project, which is why Norwalk was part of the field test, Esposito said.
In existing neighborhoods, SBC says it plans to use FTTN architecture, which means “fiber to the -node.” That system brings optical fiber to a central point in a neighborhood, within 3,000 feet of homes already being served.
Note that this is NOT fiber to the home, rather it’s fiber to the node. DSL speeds will be faster, but hardly competitive with the services now available in Japan, Korea and other more advanced countries. SBC can certainly do better. Note that the speeds should be 2 way.