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posted by Fnord666 on Monday February 05 2018, @11:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the give-me-network-choices dept.

Ars Technica is reporting on San Francisco's initial steps to create a citywide fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) open-access network where ISPs compete for customers.

According to Ars Technica:

San Francisco is trying to find network providers to build a city-wide, gigabit fiber Internet service with mandated net neutrality and consumer privacy protections. It would be an open-access network, allowing multiple ISPs to offer service over the same lines and compete for customers.

The city yesterday issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to find companies that are qualified "to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain a ubiquitous broadband FTTP [fiber-to-the-premises] network that permits retail service providers to lease capacity on the network." The project would also involve a free Wi-Fi service for city parks, city buildings, major thoroughfares, and visitor areas. Low-income residents would qualify for subsidies that make home Internet service more affordable.

ISPs offering service over the network would not be allowed to block or throttle lawful Internet traffic or engage in paid prioritization. ISPs would also need customers' opt-in consent "prior to collecting, using, disclosing, or permitting access to customer personal information or information about a customer's use of the network."

Could this be the first major US metropolitan area to create a real free market in broadband Internet? Do any Soylentils have similar municipal networks?


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday February 05 2018, @09:00PM (2 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Monday February 05 2018, @09:00PM (#633427) Journal

    Also read what Adams said about natural monopolies,

    At best, a one-fiber-to-serve-all is an attempt to use a area wide non-natural government monopoly to tear down the previously granted monopolies. An attempt to turn broadband into something like roads.

    Most areas of the US have ONE Cable/Internet provider and MAYBE access to a poor distant second-best-solution. Whoever built the subdivision gains all the customers. Who ever first plumbed all the right of ways with a cable plant doesn't have to worry about competition, because nobody else can put in a cable plant without vastly greater costs. The last mile has no real competition.

    With a local municipality owned last mile the hope (or at least the story) is to introduce competition to that last mile.

    But with the city setting access fees, and rules, there will always be a price floor. And government regulation, spying and censorship, speed restrictions.

    Broadband does not need to be a natural monopoly. (Cellular broadband isn't).
    Its only historical cost expediencies that allowed terrestrial broadband to become monopolies.

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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 05 2018, @10:46PM (1 child)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday February 05 2018, @10:46PM (#633499) Journal

    I don't buy this, sorry. Literally every single other service of its kind--water, electricity, roads--is a natural monopoly. The analogies to water delivery, for example, are so readily obvious that we even have terms like "pipe" used to describe internet connectivity.

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    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 05 2018, @11:07PM

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday February 05 2018, @11:07PM (#633517) Homepage Journal

      Agreed. Unless private citizens start being allowed to dig under roads and across their neighbors' yards, there's not a viable option for the last mile to be anything except a monopoly. As such, it needs to be regulated in such a way as to produce the most competition rather than the least. It's best for the consumer, it's best for society, and it's even best for those competing.

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