Local Broadband Service Does Well

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Sun Jan 21, 2018 11:07 am

City-owned Internet services offer cheaper and more transparent pricing | Ars Technica
Community-Owned Fiber Networks: Value Leaders in America | Berkman Klein Center
At least in the United States.

Municipal broadband networks generally offer cheaper entry-level prices than private Internet providers, and the city-run networks also make it easier for customers to find out the real price of service, a new study from Harvard University researchers found.

Researchers collected advertised prices for entry-level broadband plansthose meeting the federal standard of at least 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload speedsoffered by 40 community-owned ISPs and compared them to advertised prices from private competitors.

However, established broadband ISP's have not responded by trying to outperform that competition, but by trying to legally suppress it.

ISP lobby has already won limits on public broadband in 20 states | Ars Technica
Sorry, Comcast: Voters say yes to city-run broadband in Colorado | Ars Technica
City that was once sued by Comcast now offers 10Gbps Internet service | Ars Technica

The researchers did have difficulty collecting some of their data: legal difficulty.

There are caveats in the report, notably that it doesn't include pricing from AT&T and Verizon. "We did not collect data from AT&T because of prohibitions contained in the terms of service posted on AT&T's website," and "we did not collect data from Verizon because of prohibitions contained in the terms of service posted on Verizon's website," the report says.

Sey · Post by **Sey** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:17 pm

The right's quick to defend free trade -- until it threatens the large corporations and monopolies.

Copernicus · Post by **Copernicus** » Fri Jan 26, 2018 1:14 am

We are stuck with Comcast, which has a monopoly stranglehold on our area. Hence, our average Comcast bill, which is riddled with expensive bundled packages, is among the highest in the nation. We are basically being milked in order to fund low-priced offerings in areas where there is competition.

Comcast is one of the most hated corporations in the country, and with good reason. Their customer service is terrible, but we are constantly puzzled by the fact that they solicit customer satisfaction surveys after frustrating encounters. I guess that they think it important to put on the appearance of caring what their customers think. We have stopped taking those surveys, because they fall on deaf ears and are a waste of our time.

lpetrich · Post by **lpetrich** » Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:53 pm

[quote=""Copernicus""]We are stuck with Comcast, which has a monopoly stranglehold on our area. Hence, our average Comcast bill, which is riddled with expensive bundled packages, is among the highest in the nation. We are basically being milked in order to fund low-priced offerings in areas where there is competition.

Comcast is one of the most hated corporations in the country, and with good reason. ...[/quote]
Sort of like the railroad companies in the late 19th to early 20th cys.