"I certainly don't want my tax dollars paying for so[m]eone else's water, electricity, gas, medicine, education, healthcare, etc."
Where do you live? If it's the US, you already do pay for these products and services for others in all sorts of places. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Henry Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 11:06 AM To: 'Lars Aronsson'; 'nycwireless' Subject: RE: [nycwireless] Municipal Broadband - Must read! Lars, I'm OK with street lights and quite a bit more, but you've got to draw the line somewhere. I certainly don't want my tax dollars paying for soeone else's water, electricity, gas, medicine, education, healthcare, etc. As to the cost of your broadband connection, I'd be willing to bet you are not counting the taxes you and your fellow subjects pay for that municipal fiber network as part of that $40/month. Beyond that, I'd also bet you pay a much larger percentage of your income in taxes than I, though mine are already far too high. Taxation is theft and thus immoral. Jim > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lars > Aronsson > Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 7:46 AM > To: 'nycwireless' > Subject: RE: [nycwireless] Municipal Broadband - Must read! > > > Jim Henry wrote: > > > Just curious, does anyone know if in these countries where broadband > > is cheaper and more prevalent than the U.S., is it really cheaper or > > is it subsidized by the government? I honestly don't know the > > answer. I would like it to be cheaper here also and more > > widespread, but not at the expense of free enterprise. > > If it takes socialism to accomplish this, I don't want it. > > I heard that socialism has gone away now that "cialis" is caught in > the spam filters. Seriously, though, I have yet to see street lights > operated on a pay-per-view commercial basis. Somebody paid > once-and-for-all to pave and light the streets, and it could be tax > money. Does that make it socialism? > > In Sweden I pay 320 SEK/mo ($40) for 10 Mbit/s. This is possible > because I live in a coop apartment building, where every apartment is > wired by an ISP, and the in-house switched LAN is connected to a > municipal fiber in the basement. This ISP (www.bredband.com) was > founded with venture capital during the dotcom boom and got a contract > with the largest national association of apartment coops (www.hsb.se). > Through this contract, apartment coops that are members have a very > streamlined procedure for signing up to get their apartment buildings > wired. > > This spring, the ISP is introducing a reduced price 2 Mbit/s offering > (still over CAT-5 twisted pair ethernet, so I guess it is really 10 > Mbit/s but bandwidth limited) and at the same time my line is upgraded > to 100 Mbit/s at unchanged price. > > As far as I know, there is no direct government subsidy, but a lot of > factors work together: > > * Compared to the U.S., more people here live in apartments. > People living in private homes cannot get broadband as cheap, > simply because wiring a dozen apartments in one building is a > lot cheaper than wiring a dozen private homes. > > * Coops is a very common form of apartment ownership in Sweden > since the 1930s, and the national associations work pretty > well. The nationwide template contract made it easier for a > lot of small coops to sign up, who don't have the technical > insights to do their own negotiations. > > * The dotcom boom provided the venture capital for this > broadband-only ISP. You could call this "subsidized by stupid > investors". I guess the stock price has fallen, but at least > this company is still around. > > * The old national telco is not involved at all in this solution. > > * The ISP rents dark fiber from the municipal utility between my > building and the ISP's facility in this town. The municipal > water, sewer, electricity, and heating utility is operated as a > whole-owned corporation (www.tekniskaverken.se) and I don't > know exactly how they have financed the build-out of the > municipal fiber network. > > I guess most of these conditions could also apply to New York City, > more than to rural or suburban America. > > > -- > Lars Aronsson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se > -- > NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ > Un/Subscribe: > http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ > Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.14.14/222 - Release > Date: 1/5/2006 > > -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
