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posted by mrpg on Saturday February 24 2018, @06:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the yes-carrier dept.

San Francisco: Building Community Broadband to Protect Net Neutrality and Online Privacy

Like many cities around the country, San Francisco is considering an investment in community broadband infrastructure: high-speed fiber that would make Internet access cheaper and better for city residents. Community broadband can help alleviate a number of issues with Internet access that we see all over America today. Many Americans have no choice of provider for high-speed Internet, Congress eliminated user privacy protections in 2017, and the FCC decided to roll back net neutrality protections in December.

This week, San Francisco published the recommendations of a group of experts, including EFF's Kit Walsh, regarding how to protect the privacy and speech of those using community broadband.

This week, the Blue Ribbon Panel on Municipal Fiber released its third report, which tackles competition, security, privacy, net neutrality, and more. It recommends San Francisco's community broadband require net neutrality and privacy protections. Any ISP looking to use the city's infrastructure would have to adhere to certain standards. The model of community broadband that EFF favors is sometimes called "dark fiber" or "open access." In this model, the government invests in fiber infrastructure, then opens it up for private companies to compete as your ISP. This means the big incumbent ISPs can no longer block new competitors from offering you Internet service. San Francisco is pursuing the "open access" option, and is quite far along in its process.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:43PM (3 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:43PM (#643221)

    For comparison's sake: There was someone talking about recruiting me to work in Silicon Valley for about 3 times what I was making in Ohio. That was enough to make me sit up and take notice ... until I started doing the math, and I realized that my quality of life was going to go down, my cost of living was going to go way up, and the bottom line would be at best no better. To give an idea of the difference, those tiny little studio apartments that are hard to get are double the rent of the comfortable 4-bedroom house I was living in, in a nice neighborhood with a lovely view of Lake Erie and the sound of waves crashing against the beach.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
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  • (Score: 2) by Geezer on Sunday February 25 2018, @12:01PM (2 children)

    by Geezer (511) on Sunday February 25 2018, @12:01PM (#643423)

    Shhhhh! Keep it quiet. Don't let on that many places in Ohio have good-paying jobs, affordable housing, and better ISP's than hip west-coast techbro hives. We'll get over-run by Starbucks-seeking hipsters. Especially don't mention the wild paw paws. Let them eat kale.

    My totally uncool SuddenLink cable hookup way down here in Meigs County gives me better RTS gaming performance than anything I ever saw in California. Our cozy 3-bedroom 2-bath bungalow near the Ohio River was only $40K, and if I choose to do some part-time consulting from home there are plenty of companies around Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland that offer easy Pro From Dover gigs.

    Don't Californicate Ohio!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @07:52PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @07:52PM (#644130)

      We've got domesticated Paw Paws popping up here in California thanks to a broad network of specialist seed growing, cutting sharing plant clubs, as well as access to multiple major seed companies (Baker Creek, Kitazawa, Trade Winds Fruit, and dozens of others.) I've got two paw paw seeds sprouting in planters awaiting potting during the warmer part of the year. From common to exotic, we've got it covered here. And unlike you guys, outside the mountain ranges we barely hit freezing 9+ months of the year.

      Having said all that, the Bay Area has turned into a shithole even (smart) natives are avoiding. A friend got a job there to try and break into the 'big league' software industry, and only still has that job because a year on they agreed to let him telecommute from a cheaper region a few counties over (75-100+ miles) rather than give him a raise (which had already been lowballed when he started and after the first year didn't cover his cost of living increases in the CHEAP (just shy of 'might get shot') parts of the bay.