<story><title>Obama calls for municipal broadband</title><url>http://www.vox.com/2015/1/14/7546865/obama-municipal-broadband-fcc</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ayuvar</author><text>Municipal broadband is a great idea. A town near me, Olds, just rolled out gigabit fiber to the curb for $57&amp;#x2F;mo.&lt;p&gt;Considering most of the other nearby municipalities have to live with dialup or (agonizingly slow) satellite internet, it&amp;#x27;s been a big draw to the area. I think it absolutely makes a ton of sense for rural areas; if I had a remote job it would be very tempting to head out there and get an acreage.&lt;p&gt;I feel like splitting it up and having municipalities responsible for their own infrastructure makes it easier for the common man to get involved, too. You can show up at city council and express an opinion or volunteering for a committee a lot easier than walking into a federal building and doing the same.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/small-alberta-town-gets-massive-1-000-mbps-broadband-boost-1.1382428&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbc.ca&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;small-alberta-town-gets-ma...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>justizin</author><text>I agree with making it possible for the common person to get involved, as well.&lt;p&gt;The problem with current Title II negotiations is that they still only involve top-level government officials and corporate execs.  I&amp;#x27;m afraid of making the rules too vindictive, but that doesn&amp;#x27;t mean I don&amp;#x27;t think what&amp;#x27;s currently happening is shady.&lt;p&gt;Why try to solve the internet forever in one fell swoop?  Any such effort is almost certainly doomed to fail.&lt;p&gt;Municipalities sharing what does and does not work over time, and spreading working ideas to new places like wildfire is more like open-source, more agile, and more anarchist, though that&amp;#x27;s probably not a selling point for most people worded as such. ;)</text></comment>
<story><title>Obama calls for municipal broadband</title><url>http://www.vox.com/2015/1/14/7546865/obama-municipal-broadband-fcc</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ayuvar</author><text>Municipal broadband is a great idea. A town near me, Olds, just rolled out gigabit fiber to the curb for $57&amp;#x2F;mo.&lt;p&gt;Considering most of the other nearby municipalities have to live with dialup or (agonizingly slow) satellite internet, it&amp;#x27;s been a big draw to the area. I think it absolutely makes a ton of sense for rural areas; if I had a remote job it would be very tempting to head out there and get an acreage.&lt;p&gt;I feel like splitting it up and having municipalities responsible for their own infrastructure makes it easier for the common man to get involved, too. You can show up at city council and express an opinion or volunteering for a committee a lot easier than walking into a federal building and doing the same.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/small-alberta-town-gets-massive-1-000-mbps-broadband-boost-1.1382428&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbc.ca&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;small-alberta-town-gets-ma...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Alupis</author><text>&amp;gt; Municipal broadband is a great idea. A town near me, Olds, just rolled out gigabit fiber to the curb for $57&amp;#x2F;mo.&lt;p&gt;I do wonder if Olds is just covering their costs (likely) or are turning a profit (unlikely) (most municipal initiatives I&amp;#x27;ve seen aimed to provide bandwidth at cost)?&lt;p&gt;The infrastructure is new and shiny now, and works well, but in 15 years what will it look like? Most state highways systems are in atrocious condition, let alone federal interstates. If the municipal is not turning a profit (even a slight one), there might not be incentive&amp;#x2F;budget to continuously upgrade the infrastructure as new technology becomes available.&lt;p&gt;I think I would prefer a system in-which municipals lay and operate fiber throughout the city, but don&amp;#x27;t connect to the end users -- instead leaving that up to small ISP&amp;#x27;s to make the final termination and provide bandwidth (pay for the upstream, etc). This way the fiber can be available to a greater many small ISP&amp;#x27;s and give them a good footing to compete with the BIG5 and more, while simultaneously providing an incentive to keep the infrastructure current (better than the small ISP&amp;#x27;s could lay themselves and upgrades paid for by leasing fees from downstream).&lt;p&gt;Something along those lines would spur small business (small ISP) growth while forcing the BIG5 to play more fair since consumers would have a significantly larger selection of ISP&amp;#x27;s in a relatively short time.</text></comment>