Muni broadband sucks (was: New minimum speed for US broadband connections)

Wed Jun 2 18:50:48 UTC 2021

On Wed, Jun 2, 2021 at 9:46 AM Andy Ringsmuth <andy at andyring.com> wrote:
> > Muni broadband sucks for several reasons but the most important one is:
> >
> > Competition. Municipal broadband eliminates it. If it's not obvious
> > why, feel free to Google how competition and monopolization impact
> > product quality. It's a pretty universal trait.
> >
> >
> > If you were to structure muni broadband to enhance competition rather
> > than limit it, you might get a different result. For example, if
> > municipalities installed and leased fiber optic cables to every
> > structure but didn't provide any services on those cables, relying
> > instead on third parties directly billing the customer to do so, it
> > could work out as well as having municipalities pay for roads and
> > letting people buy their own cars and trucks to use on them.
>
> In many municipalities, you can choose your electricity provider. And yet there are not multiple companies running power lines to every house.

Hi Andy,

Take a closer look at how that works. Your electricity vendor is also
the one who chooses which generating companies to buy from. You're
stuck with the municipal distribution network (just like you're stuck
with the municipal roads) but you have a choice in who you buy
electricity from and how you structure it. Want a flat rate? There's
someone who will sell you that. Want a discount for load shedding?
There's someone who will sell you that too. Carbon neutral? Someone
for that too. You can bet wrong and suffer for it (see: Texas winter
storms) but mostly you get better power service.

A comparable Internet setup would be where the municipality implements
a local network distribution service and then you buy from the
Internet provider of your choice. He bills you and passes the muni's
distribution portion onward. He makes his own arrangements for
upstream Internet or whatever services he elects to vend. Max speed,
flat rate, 95th percentile, IP addresses, etc. are controlled by the
competitive Internet provider who, if you're unhappy with him, could
be replaced.

> I’m generally all for private enterprise. But when those private enterprises take public money, don’t do what they are supposed to do with it, squander it, and nothing changes, again and again, well, what’s that definition of insanity?

Yes it is, which is why I'm also against subsidizing large carriers to
build out monopoly networks.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

--
William Herrin
bill at herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/