One of the best pieces I have read on the subject. It is critical that the public and the main stream media picks up on this thread.

The only way to stop the back room politics the Telcos are using is to make it impossible for an elected official to get re-elected if they support this type of legislation.

Educaton is the key

Redlining may never have been more pronounced, or so blatantly promoted in the past as it is today, as demonstrated by the RBOCs’ new Starship Services being sold under the umbrella moniker of FTTP (FTTH, FTTN, and FTTB). They are being targeted – in a way that is entirely unabashed in public statements by the RBOCs – strictly at upper economic scale neighborhoods, thus bolstering the proverbial digital divide that already exists instead of helping to bring it down.

In my own town of New York City there’s an organization known as the Center for an Urban Future that published an exemplary report recently (Dec. 2004) highlighting the eventual effects of such practices over the life of a service provider’s outside plant provisions, or lack thereof. I commend this paper to anyone with an interest in promoting an awareness of the importance of municipal networks as an option to what the incumbents are offering and have offered for the past hundred plus years:

NEW YORK’S BROADBAND GAP
By Jonathan Bowles
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H15D12FAA

Elsewhere, you state that Topeka’s wireless network would not have any overriding effects on the state as a whole, I see from whence you come with this, but I’d view the matter a bit differently. The overall effects to the State would indeed be felt by a proliferation of wireless and even wireline (e.g., iProvo/UTOPIA) networks in towns and cities. But the effects would be felt in a positive way, as more of the state’s municipalities improved their overall quality-of-life attributes and their economic positioning as a result improved communications infrastructures (or merely having the option of such, as you’ve duly noted), as they would with improved roads, airport access and electrification, etc.

Incidentally, if anyone looking in here can point to a broadband report for their own, or other, towns and cities, similar to the one I’ve cited above (New York’s Broadband Gap), I’d appreciate your emailing the specifics to me. TIA.

frank@coluccio.net

When it comes to cheap, plentiful residential broadband, the biggest spillover benefits will accrue to providers of customized education and career services (CECS).

These providers, then, can be expected to run the build-out of their favorite ‘cheap complement’-to-be.

Better still, CECS providers will speed the WiMax/WiFi build-out via a franchise model, which doubles as a nice career service.

Send email if more details are of interest (my CECS biz plan is MSFT-/Amazon.com-approved).

Enjoy,

Bill Gurley’s Above the Crowd recent posting (welcome to the Blogsphere Bill!) about locel ILECs and MSOs trying to restrict local government’s ability to provide broadband as a public service is a timely and very important article to read. Basically…

I know you VC’s like to “pump” technologies and products, but I really question how fast technologies like WiMax will be adopted. My NYC apartment already has a “moat” around it. I have already invested in my wireless network, and broadband provider. WiMax would have to be near free to get me to switch. I simply can’t be bothered with all of the switching hassle to save $10. Hell, sometimes my wireless network drops, and I am 5 feet from the access point. I can’t imagine how these WiMax guys are going to deliver a good user experience. I know many people that have “ripped out” their home wireless because the technology is so un-reliable. Like any technology effort, I am sure that quality will suffer, just so we can spend valuable R&D dollars on getting 100×100 pixel poor quality video highlights of an NBA game that I don’t care about (cough: VCAST).

Note to all wireless players reading this post: Spend your R&D dollars on quality of service. I live in midtown Manhattan and my cell phone drops calls all of the time! Who cares that I can take a picture or watch a video clip.

In my Bizarro VC world, I would be funding new analog telco startups. There are profits to be made on the millions of disenchanted new age digital users like myself. Just think of a world, with no dropped calls, viruses, worms or spam. Where do I sign up?

Venture capitalist and tech visionary Bill Gurley lists six reasons why states should say no to laws banning municipal networks. 1. The primary reason legislators are proposing to “take rights” from these towns and cities is to reduce or eliminate…