Jim,
I am not sure what rocket you had to strap to this article to make the
leap from public policy that promotes broadband to socialism. But it
must have been large! Is NYC's water tunnel number 3 socialism or smart
public policy? What the rural electrification authority socialism or
smart public policy? YOUR ALREADY PAYING SUBSIDIES to the incumbent
telcos and getting nothing for it. How about we stop talking about
socialism and start talking about replacing dumb public policy (like
paying incumbent telcos for broadband we don't get) with smart public
policy. If you happy with current arrangement good for you. I am glad
your broadband sucks and is expensive. Maybe you do something that
doesn't depend on ubiquitous global Internet connectivity priced
properly. But I doubt it.
- Dustin -
Jim Henry wrote:
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
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