Carriers throw their weight around towns

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to them--tired enough that they're willing to look at complex and potentially risky do-it-yourself solutions.

"Based on what we've seen so far, it's not a good financial idea for these towns, but they are making a point that they're tired of being ignored," said Mike Paxton, an analyst at In-Stat/MDR.

Incomplete Utopia
As deeper-pocketed cities continue to explore their options, smaller communities in rural America are also taking matters into their own hands.

In sparsely populated Utah, a coalition of 14 small cities are building their own fiber network to bring broadband into their homes. Planners of the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency, or Utopia, are trying propel their communities into a technologically advanced region.

The plan entails selling government bonds backed by taxpayers to fund construction of the project to create an infrastructure of high-speed fiber lines reaching into peoples' homes. Utopia would then license access to third parties, such as AT&T, to sell service to residents.

But when the group tried to entice Salt Lake City to join, they learned that the Bells and cable incumbents know how to navigate the corridors of power. Qwest Communications, the region's Bell operator, led Comcast and smaller phone operators in lobbying the area's largest city to stay out of Utopia.

"We think it's improper for governments to gamble with taxpayers' dollars to compete with private industries, especially when this is being provided by the private sector," said Qwest spokesman Vince Hancock. "Under this model, local governments are competing directly against private businesses, duplicating services and negatively impacting the viability of private industries."

Salt Lake City decided not to back the project with tax dollars, raising doubts that the project can reach its revenue goals. That hasn't stopped Utopia from going ahead with construction throughout its collection of smaller cities.

A squeaky wheel
In the case of Philadelphia, Tuesday's agreement with Verizon is a victory for cities wanting to explore their options. The city hopes to offer wireless broadband nodes using the Wi-Fi standard to all residents, especially ones still underserved by Verizon. Forty percent of Philadelphia's neighborhoods cannot get broadband Internet access, most of them low-income areas or business-heavy regions where residences are sparse, according to a city spokeswoman.

"Our real goal for this was to provide low-cost access to breach the digital divide and be sure all citizens and businesses to compete in this economy," said Dianah Neff, the city's chief information officer.

However, the mayor's office has yet to issue a plan detailing critical issues such as funding and feasibility.

In the Chicago area, the Tri-Cities debate stayed out of the legislative arena. It was settled--for now, at least--in the voting booth. Collins' group hoped the region's public utilities department would manage the network instead of leasing it out to third parties, claiming no tax dollars would be at risk. Instead, the group would try to lure private financiers to help fund the construction.

While Fiber For Our Future failed for the second year in a row, it margin of loss narrowed. Even if the Tri-Cities eventually approve self-funded fiber network, all the publicity may be scaring the incumbents enough to prod them into speeding the process of bringing broadband into more homes.

"We only got cable modems last spring after the cities began making noise about building our own utility," said Peter Collins, Annie Collins' husband and the director of information technology for the city of Geneva. "The big part of what that proved to us is we scared the hell out of them and all of a sudden proved we don't have to rely on them for our telecom future."

[zeroplane]

Telecom and Cable worst customer service ever!

Telecom and cable companies (especially ones with monopolies in certain areas) have the worst customer service and just plain old worse services of any industry. They are slow, expensive, and show no respect for their customers. Their business models are stuck in the 50es and they are slow to adopt anything.

Crying foul and playing the billion dollar lobbying card because informed consumers are tired of being ignored or being treated like dirt expected. When community run systems can be cheaper to build, run, and versitile for end customers. You bet the Fat Cat bells will smash it into the group.

Because they have monopolies in most areas (government sanctioned mind you) they have no reason to work hard, provide quality service at a resonable price.

Like the fact that the technology industry is starting to beat the Bells at their own game. By providing streaming TV and movies with a true on-demand system that soon will be in HDTV quality. All through both cable and DSL lines.

Cancel your subscriptions and get basic cable. Then signup for internet access and subscript to (half the price) streaming TV. Boom! You get more choice at half the price.

I'm sure the Cable company will block access to services via a the internet that stream video or music. Just wait.

[Stan Kee]

Become A Corporation

If there was a way for them to become a big rich greedy corporation then they would likely get a better response from the greedy politions in the form a subsidy or the large amount of "pork" being thrown around. The government works in everyone's interest except the people.

[Earl Benser]

Really........

If you don't like the Telcoms or the Cable nets, just where do
you get an internet connection????? Satellite feed??? Sure, if you
like low bandwidth.

Seems like you're left with two cans and a mile of string.

[Below Meigh]

Wake Up!

The local and state government is "supposed" to have more
power than the federal. Folks should start waking up and realize
how much worse we are since the feds broke up Ma Bell. Now
she is Mommie Dearest Bell with multiple personalities.

The wires on poles dates back to the 40's. The phone companies
spend $billions on "self" advertising (like they have competition)
and then turnaround and cry "we need subsidies" from the feds.
Then they hikes rates and add "taxes" to cover their costs (taxes
even the feds never get). Then they sell your info and charge you
again if you want privacy.

Since they know they will never make a profit, they instead show
loss after loss, create situations that "require" the CWA to
intervene, and fail to support new technology (rather look at DSL
and how "bell" sat and sucked up vendor's customer, all the
while taking DSL clients, charging now-defunct DSL providers
for loopback tests and lethargically installing CO equipment to
discourage competition...).

Communication is social. Enterprise is about innovation, not
suffocation. The phone companies are so far down the politco's
pockets that they can pick their toes while doing the M-word!

Vo-IP over cable. (funny, phone company owns the company
that installs cell towers. Funny that Verizon is now pushing
direct tv. I say, vote Powell out of the FTC and put someone like
Bill gates in. MS phones for free!) Hey, if you think of a way to
free up communication without sacrificing quality...go for it! You
have my vote-

[kieranmullen]

Keep microsoft OUT

Please keep microsoft out of any communication plans unless you want to unplug and plug in your phones 10 times before having a 5 minute phone conversation.