Lots of cities (Score: 2, Insightful) by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2016-11-25 17:59 (#22YQ2) Lots of cities go down this path to offer their own broadband. My hometown even provided basic cable access. They f'ed that up pretty badly, losing millions of taxpayer dollars in the process.Years later they decided to try again with fiber. Once again, they f'ed that up pretty badly, losing millions of taxpayer dollars in the process.They eventually gave up and handed the whole thing over to Google. That went fairly well. Comcast (cable) and CenturyLink (dsl) both started offering higher speeds for less. Everyone won.Merely offering an alternative isn't any good. Offering an alternative that is at least as good, and preferably better, is required to actually cause the existing powers that be to compete. Re: Lots of cities (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on 2016-11-26 15:31 (#231G7) Could be worse. You could be getting NBN. Re: Lots of cities (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2016-11-27 04:34 (#2337R) Or New Zealand's gigabit Gigatown, where you order it and get DSL speeds because the sales guy on the phone doesn't know they offer gigabit, and argues with you that they don't sell it. Re: Lots of cities (Score: 1) by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2016-12-01 19:52 (#23NQA) When I first got the city-provided power, it was fast-ish, but extremely flaky. Turns out the installer didn't understand how to polish the fiber.After months of complaining - apparently by everyone - the city stopped hiring contractors and had their own people come out to each house and redo the connectors. It was pretty good after that.
Re: Lots of cities (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on 2016-11-26 15:31 (#231G7) Could be worse. You could be getting NBN. Re: Lots of cities (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2016-11-27 04:34 (#2337R) Or New Zealand's gigabit Gigatown, where you order it and get DSL speeds because the sales guy on the phone doesn't know they offer gigabit, and argues with you that they don't sell it. Re: Lots of cities (Score: 1) by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2016-12-01 19:52 (#23NQA) When I first got the city-provided power, it was fast-ish, but extremely flaky. Turns out the installer didn't understand how to polish the fiber.After months of complaining - apparently by everyone - the city stopped hiring contractors and had their own people come out to each house and redo the connectors. It was pretty good after that.
Re: Lots of cities (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2016-11-27 04:34 (#2337R) Or New Zealand's gigabit Gigatown, where you order it and get DSL speeds because the sales guy on the phone doesn't know they offer gigabit, and argues with you that they don't sell it. Re: Lots of cities (Score: 1) by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2016-12-01 19:52 (#23NQA) When I first got the city-provided power, it was fast-ish, but extremely flaky. Turns out the installer didn't understand how to polish the fiber.After months of complaining - apparently by everyone - the city stopped hiring contractors and had their own people come out to each house and redo the connectors. It was pretty good after that.
Re: Lots of cities (Score: 1) by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2016-12-01 19:52 (#23NQA) When I first got the city-provided power, it was fast-ish, but extremely flaky. Turns out the installer didn't understand how to polish the fiber.After months of complaining - apparently by everyone - the city stopped hiring contractors and had their own people come out to each house and redo the connectors. It was pretty good after that.