The city of Bountiful, Utah voted to build a $48 million fiber network to provide affordable gigabit broadband for its residents and businesses. Regional internet providers Comcast and CenturyLink opposed the plan and tried to force a public vote through a taxpayer group they fund. However, communities often build their own networks because existing options are inadequate. Data shows that community-owned networks provide better, faster, cheaper service than monopolies. While big internet providers claim community networks are a boondoggle, they are just another business plan that often succeeds due to quality proposals and local accountability. Comcast and CenturyLink did not want to provide the high-speed internet Bountiful needed, but also tried to block the city from doing so itself.
You love to see it. Do you have community Internet available where you live?
In a sane country, the mere attempt at blocking the establishment of a competitor would have been grounds for a Ma Bell-style dissection of both companies.
I used to live in Bountiful so I believe I can give some context here.
There was another fiber company (Utopia) that expanded to much of the area but each city had to basically join in and this was years ago. The city right next to Bountiful, Centerville had this fiber connection expanded while Bountiful never joined in and you were forced to use Comcast mostly. But Bountiful has always been a bit different compared to other cities in Utah as they also had city power instead of going through Rocky Mountain Power.
This is Bountiful being Bountiful going for community based utilities.
My area is stuck with the illusion of choice between Comcast cable and AT&T DSL.
That’s wonderful news for Bountiful. Quite a $48m middle finger to these monopolies.
This is the way. I want all places and all businesses to have healthy competitors. Businesses should not be allowed to acquire other businesses unless they have been operating in losses for at least 5 years. That’s how all this monopolistic bullshit will stop.
If you’re not careful, that’ll incentivize competing companies to collude with or acquire suppliers to drive up prices for competitors. I know that wasn’t the thought behind the suggestion, but there’s always someone there to break the spirit of the law, if not the word. And there’s always people breaking the word of the law.
Or, just pay their executives more.
Yeah figured there would be a way for corporate greed to fuck over any regulation. Can you think of any amendments to my proposition that would prevent this?
Sorry telcos! You lose, and suck, in that order.
They’ve been sucking for longer than they’ve been losing
They are very lucky to have this work out well for them. So many other communities are lucky to have broad support for infrastructure upgrades.
A fitting name for a beautiful outcome.
I wish them bountiful data transfers without Telco trashiness.
In México it’s kind of weird. We certainly have competition, but there are major leaders like: Telmex, izzi, Megacable and Totalplay. They are mostly mediocre, but they’ll try to outpace their competition every time they can. There are jobs just for advertisement where people move from sector to sector leaving pamphlets and trying to convince you to change your service. The problem is that they usually buy competitors to improve their infrastructure. For example, izzi bought part of Axtel, which to me was the best service provider in Nuevo León, so we moved to Totalplay the next month after the acquisition.
They always have offers and will offer you ‘better’ packages to convince you, sometimes matching the same price just so they gain a new customer (commissions are also an incentive for workers). Recently the government announced a new service provided by our federal energy commission (CFE) which aims to provide free internet in rural and public places and paid mobile data plans. More competition is always welcomed.
Gotta say that our Federal Telecommunications Office sometimes does its job and protects you against bad-faith movements like ISPs blocking you from moving and/or using other methods that are not approved, but no public services have a clean record. Still, at least here I’m seeing some progress.
