Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/19/lazy-monopolists.html
…
6 Likes
So, a clear case for municipalising local ISPs.
Size the means of connection!
10 Likes
But… but… monopolies are efficient…
at making obscene profits for senior management / shareholders by delivering the absolute minimum service for the absolute maximum price.
10 Likes
NextLight is in the town over from me. It’s crazy how good it is. 1Gbps symmetrical for ~$50. It’s been a real success, but it took them years to get there. The increased presence of Comcast and CenturyLink advertising to combat the “Evil Muni ISP” was comedic.
3 Likes
And then after that, seize them! 
4 Likes
Autocorrect users of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but some embarrassing typos.
3 Likes
“Threatened by the specter of actual competition, the telecom lobby has convinced more than two dozen states to pass laws restricting or simply banning communities from building their own broadband networks.”
Convinced? Just say “bribed”.
6 Likes
Proud customer of Burlington [Vermont] Telecom’s great fiber-to-my-home service. Sadly they were driven into the ground by monopolies, along with financial mismanagement, and they are now privately owned, but they still seem to be staying true to their roots as a municipal Internet provider.
I cannot fathom how/why it is legal/constitutional for a state government to tell cities and towns what taxpayer approved infrastructure projects they’re allowed to build. Would a state be allowed to say that a town isn’t allowed to build a new school or upgrade a fire station. Why is the “party of freedom” allowed to tell cities and towns what they’re allowed to do with their own money?
Yes, and that is why they are generally illegal.
I’m pretty confused. This is the only image I see on the PCMag site, although the article references clicking on the legend to reveal/hide data – What am I missing? I don’t see any other chart.
Apposite, tho.
I live in the near the footprint of EPB. My sister has it at her house. It has true gigabit speeds, regardless of what that graph says. I ran the Ookla Speedtest on it for her. That sucker just howls.
We should all have that shit.
That’s capitalism in a nutshell hellhole MF political payoff to, as a fairly local example, Marsha Blackburn, the newly elected Senator from TN, who received $600,999 from the telecom demons from 1989 to 2017, when she retired to run for Senate as a republican. That’s a hell of a lot of motivation.
I’d give almost anything to not be a DSL slave of Windstream, when EPB in Chattanooga is only 20 miles away. It’s like seeing a clear fresh mountain lake in the distance, while you are stuck in the desert.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
