this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
132 points (98.5% liked)

Technology

34889 readers
310 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.


Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.


Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

We had something similar in my city. Basically, we started building a broadband network, then our state legislature blocked new municipal service (we hadn't turned it on yet), so we were forced to sell it at a loss (we've almost finished paying off the debt). I have service from the new ISP (only offers service in my city), and it rocks, but has limited max speed. The laws changed, so we're trying it again.

I understand the high level complaints here because municipal ISPs could simply move costs to taxes to undercut competitors, but that argument falls flat when you see how private ISPs do exactly the same thing, but with lawsuits and promotional deals instead of taxes.

So I'm 100% in favor of municipal broadband, but I can see having some regulations there such as:

  • municipalies must allow other ISPs to offer service on their network
  • pricing of service must include all necessary maintenance of the network
  • a special provision that allows municipalities to offer a base free tier at an acceptable speed that's enough for remote school (say, 10/10 down/up); perhaps this is treated as a credit that any ISP could accept