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Comcast, beware: New city-run broadband offers 1Gbps for $60 a month
A municipal broadband service in Fort Collins, Colorado went live for new customers today, less than two years after the city's voters approved the network despite a cable industry-led campaign against it.
[...] Fort Collins Connexion, the new fiber-to-the-home municipal option, costs $59.95 a month for 1Gbps download and 1Gbps upload speeds, with no data caps, contracts, or installation fees. There's a $15 monthly add-on fee to cover Wi-Fi, but customers can avoid that fee by purchasing their own router. Fort Collins Connexion also offers home phone service, and it plans to add TV service later on.
[...] "The initial number of homes we're targeting this week is 20-30. We will notify new homes weekly, slowly ramping up in volume," Connexion spokesperson Erin Shanley told Ars. While Connexion's fiber lines currently pass just a small percentage of the city's homes and businesses, Shanley said the city's plan is to build out to the city limits within two or three years.
"Ideally we will capture more than 50% of the market share, similar to Longmont," another Colorado city that built its own network, Shanley said. Beta testers at seven homes are already using the Fort Collins service, and the plan is to start notifying potential customers about service availability today.
[...] In November 2017, voters in Fort Collins approved a ballot question that authorized the city to build the broadband network.
The Colorado Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA), of which Comcast is a member, donated $815,000 toward a campaign against the ballot initiative. The Chamber of Commerce also opposed the plan. Comcast didn't participate in the campaign publicly, but the company would have been the main beneficiary of a vote against the municipal option.
In all, the industry-led opposition spent more than $900,000 fighting the ballot question, while the pro-broadband group led by residents spent about $15,000.
Before the election, a study by a pro-municipal broadband group estimated that "Competition in Fort Collins would cost Comcast between $5.4 million and $22.8 million per year."
Fort Collins Connexion promises to follow net neutrality principles, saying it will not "intentionally block, slow down, or charge money for specific websites and online content."
The municipal ISP's privacy pledge says that it does not "share, distribute, or sell a User's specific Internet usage history, call history, voicemail, or other electronic data generated from a User's Internet and phone Service to any external third party."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SpockLogic on Monday September 02 2019, @12:23AM (5 children)
Internet access should be a public utility not a private monopoly.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02 2019, @12:36AM
Internet access should be free of charge, not just for those who can afford a great Internet connection or the right amount of storage space, but for everyone. Internet providers should also be required to let users opt out of mandatory ISP services that demand an up-front charge just so they can participate in a free market.
The FCC has the authority to address these concerns and should act immediately to protect consumers from arbitrary fees or charges for their Internet access service. With that said, the FCC's rules should only apply to broadband service and not to home Internet service, which may be subject to some service charges or other charges based on users' usage habits. In any event, consumers should not be required to choose which ISP will be the first to offer them more access to the Internet, but rather their choice should hinge on where they are residing.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 02 2019, @12:43AM (2 children)
Funny, that's the speed I have for a nickle more than I pay and I'm getting my service from some evil capitalists. Okay, so they're flaming eco-hippies but it's still a private corporation. One who knows treating your customers like kings means big telco companies aren't going to ever get a toehold on this market.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 02 2019, @05:28AM (1 child)
Pictures or it didn't happen
(oh, boy. Can't wait to see pictures of some catfish ISPes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 02 2019, @10:19AM
Eh, the only fish they know about is the ones in their aquarium. That's eco-hippies for you though. Always wanting to save nature but not wanting to be part of it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday September 02 2019, @09:31AM
Still seeing the world in red and blue huh?
Ok.
This is a capitalism success so far. Corp makes too much profit, startups launches and competes. Now, capitalism is still a fairy tale because corporation tries to buy politicians or raise legal problems. Yes, a state run network might offer better service, or be a place for the cronies of the bureaucrats in power to place friends, until they wasn't more money and end up with the private public hybrid which is the worst of both worlds. This is what I saw happening often BTW.
Account abandoned.