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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, Informative) by stretch611 on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:55PM (2 children)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:55PM (#643188)

    Slight Correction...

    This is why the telecoms have been working for decades to make community/co-op access illegal.

    In many places power utilities have created ISPs to compete. Specifically in TN and NC where the telecoms have bribed the state politicians to limit the expansion.

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    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:45PM

    by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:45PM (#643222) Homepage Journal

    Slight correction to the correction:

    This is why the telecoms, aided by restrictive legislation written and supported ALEC [alec.org] and supported by elected officials from one side of the aisle (I wonder which one?) have been working for decades to make community/co-op access illegal.

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    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:31AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:31AM (#643337)

    Chattanooga's publicly-owned power utility is the classic case of expanding into adding internet cables to their infrastructure.

    ...and, yeah, the incumbent companies pulled the backdoor move to limit expansion.
    ...but In Spite of Lobbyist Efforts, over 500 Community Broadband Networks Across US [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [broadbandnow.com]

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]