from the sueden-outbreak-of-common-sense? dept.
Comcast rejected by small town—residents vote for municipal fiber instead
A small Massachusetts town has rejected an offer from Comcast and instead plans to build a municipal fiber broadband network. Comcast offered to bring cable Internet to up to 96 percent of households in Charlemont in exchange for the town paying $462,123 plus interest toward infrastructure costs over 15 years. But Charlemont residents rejected the Comcast offer in a vote at a special town meeting Thursday.
"The Comcast proposal would have saved the town about $1 million, but it would not be a town-owned broadband network," the Greenfield Recorder reported Friday. "The defeated measure means that Charlemont will likely go forward with a $1.4 million municipal town network, as was approved by annual town meeting voters in 2015." About 160 residents voted, with 56 percent rejecting the Comcast offer, according to news reports.
Charlemont has about 1,300 residents and covers about 26 square miles in northwest Massachusetts. Town officials estimate that building a municipal fiber network reaching 100 percent of homes would cost $1,466,972 plus interest over 20 years. An increase in property taxes would cover the construction cost. But the town would also bring in revenue from selling broadband service and potentially break even, making the project less expensive than Comcast's offer. "With 59 percent of households taking broadband service, the tax hike would be 29 cents [per $1,000 of assessed home value], similar to that for Comcast," a Recorder article last month said. "But if 72 percent or more of households subscribe to the municipal-owned network, there is no tax impact, because subscriber fees would pay for it."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @07:06AM
See you in court!
Love,
Dumbcast and Verizoff.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Whoever on Wednesday December 12 2018, @07:06AM (1 child)
It's important to note that Comcast only offered to reach 96% of households, while the municipal plan will reach 100%.
It would be interesting to compare costs if Comcast guaranteed to reach 100% of households -- we all know the remaining 4% will be the most expensive to reach.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @06:13PM
you missed the very important words "up to". Comcast committed themselves to pocketing the money, but not actually providing any service.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Wednesday December 12 2018, @07:29AM (10 children)
And you can conquer... a small Massachusetts town, and tomorrow, the world!
You don't have to vote for bling. Do the same with your politicians, and all will be well.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @07:41AM (7 children)
If you have non-bling politicians, that is.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fustakrakich on Wednesday December 12 2018, @08:19AM (6 children)
You have to nominate and vote for them. That's how you can work the system in the U.S.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @10:24AM (5 children)
Sure, nominate and vote for... who? In the current climate where political adversaries don't just debate issues, but attempt to destroy each other, what sane person would want to run for anything anymore?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:13PM
Wah wah wah! You're right, that sounds like an awfully lot of work. And BORING too! I too much prefer to bitch about my principles and liberties than to actually put in any effort, because let's be honest here, if the system was working well for all of us and I was doing pretty well, I'd have nothing to complain about. I'd be a conformist! I couldn't get that nihilistic-chic edge that says "I'm a bad boy outsider."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Wednesday December 12 2018, @06:01PM (3 children)
Then we'll have to conscript them. Wanna be a lawyer? You gotta serve time in congress first. You'll get your license if you do a good job. If you can't get elected, you probably wouldn't be a good lawyer anyway. Call it pre-karma. It'll sort the wheat from the chaff.
The thing is, why would you vote for people that do want the job? They are usually the least qualified, and are only looking for personal power/wealth.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday December 12 2018, @11:28PM (2 children)
I seem to remember an Arthur C. Clarke(?) novel where the presidency was assigned by lottery, with no option to abdicate, on the assumption that anyone who wanted the job was clearly unqualified.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday December 13 2018, @12:08AM (1 child)
Lottery would be better than voting. Congress should be like jury duty. Probably wouldn't hurt to put 'em out on Parris Island for a few weeks either.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday December 13 2018, @12:57AM
I've often advocated for "legislative juries" - not necessarily instead of congress, but in addition to it. Each bill gets it's own "jury" with (line item?) veto power, if not full re-writing power. And if congress can't get the bill through the jury in a reasonable amount of time, then no similar bills may be proposed for at least 4 years.
Obviously such a jury would need to be sequestered from lobbyists and other undemocratic actors - though I'm not sure how you'd do that while still giving them access to relevant research and experts. Perhaps just put them under 24 hour surveillance, and make clear that any corruption on their part will be considered treason?
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday December 12 2018, @07:49AM (1 child)
You must be new in this world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:48PM
Aren't we all...
It seems to me that if enough people want something, they can usually get it. Might even work in Australia!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday December 12 2018, @08:35AM
I guess the state legislature in MA is too expensive for Comcast. [broadbandnow.com]
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday December 12 2018, @08:38AM (4 children)
To whom would they be selling these services, if not to those who are already paying taxes, now more taxes, to the council? All "selling services" does is make the service as much more expensive as it makes it cheaper, you're just shuffling the cost around.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Interesting) by deimtee on Wednesday December 12 2018, @11:37AM (2 children)
Almost everybody pays for internet these days. The difference in this case is that they will be paying the money to their own town, instead of to Comcast.
They are providing better coverage (100% vs 96%), and faster internet (Gigabit fibre vs HFC), and I would bet on more local jobs as well.
The 'downside' is that Comcast won't make a profit off of the town. So sad.
Somebody should suggest that if they get over 80% take-up that they have free wireless cover the town too. Wouldn't cost much extra to implement and would be a nice bonus to the townspeople, and a further fuck you to the phone companies' data charges.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:54PM
yeah and even with a low subscriber rate or full tax burden price it is cheap. 1 Gbps fiber for a $50k home is $14.50 a year prop tax increase? sign me the hell up! i pay 60 for a (very unreliable) lopsided plan of 15Mbps and 3Mbps up (more like 1Mbps). i'm sooo scared of municipal broadband.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday December 12 2018, @11:08PM
The single suggestion that I think would be most useful - absolutely all accounting records, down to the miniscule details, regarding to this should be public, so that people can know exactly where their money is going, and who has signed off what. The taxpayers are *investors* in this scheme, after all. That should be true for all governmental work - all government money is taxpayers' money - but so rarely is. Partially, I say this as I expect some bits to, oooops, go over budget - who could have foreseen that? Knowing who signed off on that estimate, and to whom more money is going, is a good way of reducing attempts to pork-barrel things. That size of town should be fine, I would expect almost everyone knows everybody.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:23PM
Comcast as most ISPs being virtually a monopoly are just extractive business.
They extracts wealth from local residents, funneling money from people´s pockets to corporate accounts while providing the minumum posible value in return.
Municipalities are not profit for the most part but service driven and efficiency is not that difficult to demand from the handlers. The money pople's spend for the service stays mostly in town and not just flies away.
It's a no brainer really. What it's amazing is that some people could argue against self serving basic services in favor of predatory profiteers unless it's the last resort.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @09:18AM
That this is even a "news" shows how screwed up things are, be you a liberal or a conservative.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday December 12 2018, @12:20PM (3 children)
I started saving fifty clams a month when I cancelled my slowest-tier Comcast Internet. Mind you, I don't watch TV however I listen to music 24/7, turned all the way up to eleven: mutual assured destruction. (Strangely, the neighbors don't complain.)
I just use my iPhone 7/iOS 10.0.1 Personal Hotspot with T-Mobile's $70 unlimited data business month-to-month plan: No Contracts.
There are some limits, in that I can't watch HD videos on my Mac through my iPhone, but I _can_ listen - yes: "listen" - to YouTube just fine, even with Tor Browser; I just get a lo-rez video feed but the audio is still full-quality.
To the extent I _do_ watch TV, I only watch movies. I get ALL my news and propaganda by reading it.
A far wiser head than mine chooses to keep NedSpace's lounge Jesus Big projection TV tuned to cable news - mostly CNN and NBC but some others too. I never actually watch it but I pass through there quite a lot. One any given day, each of the news channels covers just three or four stories repeatedly all fucking day.
But contrast, but the time I get to NedSpace, or as this morning, but the time I've recovered from my stupour well enough to start work, I've read three dozen international, national, washington and oregon state and local articles, sometimes financial news too. I've trolled Soylent, Facebook and even sometimes twitter.
WHY OH WHY DOES ANYONE WATCH TV?
My Personal hotspot works really really well even for Facebook with its mountains of Javascript and graphics. It's the cat's meow for Soylent and for purely text stuff like Salty Spice's nemesis.
If I really do need to download something like a big development tool, I go out for a coffee - which I _must_ do everyday so as to avoid going batshit insane due to social isolation - then download it there.
And NedSpace was Totally Righteous broadband, because there's a data center immediately upstairs from us.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by nobu_the_bard on Wednesday December 12 2018, @02:27PM (1 child)
What is this "TV" thing? Some kind of podcast?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:34PM
Podcasts are the old person's way of feeling like they're hip.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:50PM
TV is convenient. Unfortunately, so is Facebook . . . Personally, I generally skip all news except Ars and Soylent. Upon rare occasion I hit up hackaday, but other than that I have too much to do and better things to unwind with after a long day.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:52PM
Has Comcast filed one yet?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by iamjacksusername on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:53PM (1 child)
I live in one of the places where the power brokers live as well. You can always tell when change is in the air because, suddenly, services start showing up which means the big players are trying to keep their regulators happy. Right now, I have 1Gb FiOS @ $80/mo. Verizon and Comcast are getting nervous; people are pushing for alternatives like municipal broadband and forgoing dedicated services in favor of things like TMobile or Sprint. Competition is a good thing.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Thursday December 13 2018, @08:02PM
Yeah. Living in NoVA has always had the great benefit of getting a bunch of sucking up to regulators. We were among the first places in the country to get DSL in the early 90s, and one of the first places where they rolled out fiber for Fios not too long after that.
The same can go for government services too; if you look at Richmond, VA you will note that for years they have had huge highways which are very well maintained and relatively underutilized compared to other places in the state. They also have more state police patrols there. Why? Well it's the capital of course.