Well yeah, the LECs would definitely come unglued. But... first off, what do you mean by "free?" Someone has to pay the capital and operating budgets - so if not from user fees, then from taxes. So.. it's a nice thought, but not likely to happen. Heck, have you ever seen a water utility that doesn't charge? Now... having said that -- I could see something like this happen in California: - California allows (maybe requires) that developers pay "impact fees" when building new houses -- i.e., the cost of a house, in a new development, may include $20,000+ to pay for new infrastructure - roads, waterworks, police and fire substations, schools, you name it - if you buy a new house, you pay for the full cost of the infrastructure behind it (built into the financing of course - first the construction financing, then the bridge financing, then ultimately the mortgage) - I have seen some California communities at least toy with including conduit and fiber in master plans and requirements placed on developers - after all, it's needed to feed municipal buildings, street light control, and so forth - and better to have common-user conduit and fiber in the ground than have multiple people digging up the streets later - fyi: a street cut typically takes 1 year off pavement lifetime, unless very carefully repaved - practically nobody does a good job of permitting street cuts to avoid this - San Antonio being a really notable exception (I worked for a GIS firm that built their right-of-way management system - they were a real rarity in good right-of-way management practices) - so I could see building the capital cost of a FTTH network into new housing (the same way water and phone wiring is standard) - but that's not free, and that still begs the question of who lights the fiber - still, the LECs would come unglued (and have)! Miles Fidelman Aaron wrote:
So let me throw out a purely hypothetical scenario to the collective:
What do you think the consequences to a municipality would be if they laid fiber to every house in the city and gave away internet access for free? Not the WiFi builds we have today but FTTH at gigabit speeds for free?
Do you think the LECs would come unglued?
Aaron
On 7/21/2014 8:33 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
I've seen various communities attempt to hand out free wifi - usually in limited areas, but in some cases community-wide (Brookline, MA comes to mind). The limited ones (e.g., in tourist hotspots) have been city funded, or donated. The community-wide ones, that I've seen, have been public-private partnerships - the City provides space on light poles and such - the private firm provides limited access, in hopes of selling expanded service. I haven't seen it work successfully - 4G cell service beats the heck out of WiFi as a metropolitan area service.
When it comes to municipal fiber and triple-play projects, I've generally seen them capitalized with revenue bonds -- hence, a need for revenue to pay of the financing. Lower cost than commercial services because municipal bonds are low-interest, long-term, and they operate on a cost-recovery basis.
Miles Fidelman
Aaron wrote:
Do you have an example of a municipality that gives free internet access to it's residents?
On 7/21/2014 2:26 PM, Matthew Kaufman wrote:
I think the difference is when the municipality starts throwing in free or highly subsidized layer 3 connectivity "free with every layer 1 connection"
Matthew Kaufman
(Sent from my iPhone)
On Jul 21, 2014, at 12:08 PM, Blake Dunlap <ikiris@gmail.com> wrote:
My power is pretty much always on, my water is pretty much always on and safe, my sewer system works, etc etc...
Why is layer 1 internet magically different from every other utility?
-Blake
On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 1:38 PM, William Herrin <bill@herrin.us> wrote: > On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 10:20 AM, Jay Ashworth <jra@baylink.com> > wrote: > Over the last decade, 19 states have made it illegal for > municipalities > to own fiber networks Hi Jay,
Everything government does, it does badly. Without exception. There are many things government does better than any private organization is likely to sustain, but even those things it does slowly and at an exorbitant price.
Muni fiber is a competition killer. You can't beat city hall; once built it's not practical to compete, even with better service, so residents are stuck with only the overpriced (either directly or via taxes), usually underpowered and always one-size-fits-all network access which results. As an ISP I watched something similar happen in Altoona PA a decade and a half ago. It was a travesty.
The only exception I see to this would be if localities were constrained to providing point to point and point to multipoint communications infrastructure within the locality on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis. The competition that would foster on the services side might outweigh the damage on the infrastructure side. Like public roads facilitate efficient transportation and freight despite the cost and potholes, though that's an imperfect simile.
Regards, Bill Herrin
-- William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/> Can I solve your unusual networking challenges?
-- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra