This morning the Daily News reported on Verizon's interest in wiring Newbury and Newburyport.
This afternoon a Comcast rep came by to check in on things. Fortunately, I don't manage our Internet account.
Note to whoever will negotiate our contract, get one of these behemoths to install wireless across the downtown. It'll be HUGE! We'll be a destination for latte-sipping, scone-swallowing, laptop-lugging professionals who want to get a little work done outside the office/home.
11 comments:
But will they be wearing kahkis!?
James
Oh sure, you laugh. But I'm convinced the graffiti painted on the Groveland park bench is a tag by the dreaded Khaki tide.
Word on the street is they're going to war with the Inn Street Dockers AND the Abercrombie & Fitches.
Could get ugly.
Laugh? Not I.
I'm terrified of the Kahki Tide. Reports are they have secret prisons where they force their enslaved to detail their Cooper Minis and fancy strollers.
Sounds like a job for The Liberator.
James
we already are a destination for those types of people....
Excellent. If they're already here that saves on gas.
it would be nice, but i imagine that everyone that lives or works downtown would use it as their personal internet access. wouldn't be fair for part of the town to receive free internet, while the rest have to pay for it.
Question to all, as it relates to a blog post I'm developing based on some industry news:
If you had the ability to not pay Verizon, Comcast, or any other provider for internet access (forgetting cable TV or phone service for the moment), but to pool together with other opt-in residents and share a municipal-owned internet provider, would you?
Stated differently, wouldn't you prefer to control your own internet access and not pay a (multi)national corporation for the privelege? It brings the concept of localism down to earth.
Interesting idea Ari. To be honest, I'm not sure. I don't know what goes into providing such a service so I'm not certain a local group could do so effectively.
Ben, if it's an idea that would draw business downtown, then it's a good idea.
If a couple of hundred people get free Internet access who really cares?
Hi,
Ari, there are certainly many communities around the country that do this. Generally ones that originally had a municipal power co and then added voice/data/video services to it. or towns that have charters that require local utility revenue go to a local organization (like blacksburg virginia).
in general its hard to make it work well. just look at the problems that many cities trying to get municipal wireless going are having.
and wireless is not suitable for the use you are describing. shared network environments are fine for simple access, but not for heavy usage, especially until a quality of service method really becomes common.
the concept of convergence (all three services using the same underlying infrastructure) has still not come together. and the real benefit would be to have all three use the same wires to save money.
i would expect there are new communities around the country that are looking at this. for instance, the Pine Hills development is perfect to do this since its a completely new build. or large condo/apart buildings. just drop a fractional t3 in the basement, some routers & switches, a lot of wire or fiber and hire some net admins.
the problem will be the same as verizon/comcast, support. keeping the tech unsavvy happy is difficult, especially if you can't dictate client standards (like we do in companies & universities).
many places that previous provided services like these have privatized them or hired a company to manage it. and once that happens you end up paying more.
the solution to the present problem is to get a government (and citizens) who actually understand capitalism and what it means. versus our present corporate paid-for representation and knee-jerk citizens who screem free-market and have no clue what the Invisible Hand is really about (the same ones who have perverted Ayn Rand's writings). (sorry about the rant, i want to be a libertarian. the only problem is the other "libertarians" out there)
as for the free usage, there are lots of ways to control this. but tom you probably are right in that giving a couple of hundred people free access is far easier than dealing with a registration/usage control system.
i know members of the boston wireless group very well. they are having a hard time for many reasons.
one of which is the fed's regulations that pretty much give control of this to the telco providers. just look at how the fcc has taken away just about everything that a community can do when negotiating a contract with these providers.
take a look around about the blacksburg electronic village (http://www.bev.net/). a very interesting project.
thanks,
sds
Tom- if there is free internet access to be had, i want it!
but seriously, if the city is subsidizing downtown business's internet, i can't support it. if the chamber of commerce wants to foot the bill, i'm all for it.
Hi,
Fully agree on not supporting business use. and there's would be another issue.
almost every internet contract, no matter who the provider, has limitations on specific use.
for example if you are a business you can not get a home cablemodem/dsl line and use it. you must use their more expensive business service.
i would expect any backbone connection provided to a municipal wireless provider would also have a non-business use (and certainly no servers) clause.
thakns,
sds
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