this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
925 points (99.0% liked)

Technology

59193 readers
2434 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Tired Of Being Ripped Off By Monopolies, Cleveland Launches Ambitious Plan To Provide Citywide Dirt Cheap Broadband::Cleveland has spent years being dubbed the "worst connected city in the U.S." thanks to expensive, patchy, and slow broadband. Why Cleveland broadband sucks so badly isn't really a mystery: consolidated monopoly/duopoly power has resulted in a broken market where local giants like AT&T and Charter don't have to compete on price, speeds, availability, customer…

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 161 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Countdown to the lawsuit by AT&T and Charter followed by Republicans trying to ban municipal broadband.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 97 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Oh no, they will lose out on all that efficiency from the free market

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If only they had Comcast, they could experience the joy of 10G internets.

[–] bassomitron 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

By 10G I assume you mean a monthly data cap of 10GB?

[–] uid0gid0 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No it's 10G, so much higher than 5G. The only thing better would be 11G.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's nothing free market about how cable companies operate.

[–] hperrin 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Sure there is. They are natural monopolies that form in the free market. The free market isn’t a good thing. It’s what gives us things like child labor and corporate owned towns.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol, so all the regulation protecting them is "natural"?

[–] hperrin 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No, those come after they gain a monopoly. Those regulations weren’t there when the “free market” turned them into a monopoly.

There are certain products and services that form a monopoly naturally when they operate in a free (or even relatively free) market. Those are referred to as natural monopolies, ISPs are among them.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 year ago

This ia good, natural monopolies should be run by local goverments or the goverment.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Ohio state legislature will make this illegal, or at least place a specific regulatory burden to make it illegal in this one city e.g. No town or city with a population over [insert Cleveland population -5%] or No city or town bordering large bodies of water [Lake Erie]. I guarantee it.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The solution is simple: Secede from the state of Ohio, declare Cleveland an autonomous city-state, and befriend nuclear Gandhi so no one will dare contest you.

[–] Zerlyna 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A small town near me (6,000 population) installed fiber optic around down and now it’s considered a public utility and low cost to boot.

[–] Trollception 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Yea we are in the Chattanooga area and enjoy gigabit symmetrical fiber for $67/mo. No taxes or extra fees, just the 67. It's a big part of why we chose to live here.

[–] Zerlyna 8 points 1 year ago

Howdy neighbor I’m in Tri-Cities. :)

[–] uis 1 points 1 year ago

Here gigabit would be around 8-16$/mo.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I thought you might be referencing Olds, Alberta who also did this a decade ago

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

And housing.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My electric coop installed fiber last year, up to gigabit with no limits and no throttling. They're even cool with my rampant torrenting.

I've been saying for years that internet should be treated like a utility, and I was right.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Question: could not a private company mostly owned by the city do it? Normal for profit company providing alternatives? And do it block by block...

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They could... but typically that required pulling tons of permits to do. Also means that they intend not to make a whole lot of money doing it since "cheap" is part of this. Companies are a bit allergic to doing a lot of work for cheap.

But to that point, I have enough density in my area that centurylink is installing fiber (finally...) and actually offering it at almost reasonable value. It makes monetary sense for them in this case. So they're doing it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

CenturyLink from where I grew up (rural Wisconsin), still only offers DSL as the fastest option. I now live in rural South Vietnam, and I have a fiber drop into my bedroom. Ridiculous really.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm so curious, how did you end up moving from rural Wisconsin to rural vietnam

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

for the fiber

Actually, I just fell in love with it. Wonderful food, people are kind, ~~internet fast~~, no politics, fantastic coffee. I could go on for days.

[–] uis 1 points 1 year ago

no politics

Be careful, you can end up in other place with fast and cheap(100Mbit/s for ~4-10$/mo) internet and without politics - Russia.

[–] kalleboo 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Where I lived before, the city had the municipal power company build the open-access fiber network. They already have all the right of way and lines right up to people's houses so perfectly suited.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›