Small Town Builds Its Own Gigabyte Network; Cost To Citizens $57/month 269
An anonymous reader writes "On Thursday, the board of O-Net gave approval for residents to get access to [full gigabit bandwidth] for the same price that they currently pay for a guaranteed download speed of 100 megabits per second — $57 to $90 a month, depending on whether they have bundled their internet with TV and phone service. ... the town realized that it couldn't attract technology-based businesses and that bandwidth was a challenge even to ordinary businesses. It came up with a plan — it would install a fibre network throughout the town that would connect to the larger inter-community network being built by the government at that time — the Alberta Supernet."
Re:bits and bytes (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA:
On Thursday, the board of O-Net gave approval for residents to get access to a full gigabit (or 1,000 megabits) per second of bandwidth
I guess it was too much to expect someone posting as AC to actually click the link in the summary.
Re:Started out impressive (Score:5, Informative)
The 100 megabit figure is what they currently have, not the new network.
The summary is right, but the subject (gigabyte vs gigabit) is wrong.
Re:Started out impressive (Score:2, Informative)
No it doesn't, it clearly states that they will receive 1000mbps for the same price as they currently pay for 100mbps.
Sweden (Score:1, Informative)
And because many other people here also have gbits, torrents work wonders. US probably isn't the same.
Lots of unused fiber (Score:5, Informative)
There are lots of towns in the US, big and small. that have un-used fiber laying around, which was installed the last time they ripped up their streets for remodel, or which was built into subdivisions as a conditions of their permitting process. Most of this is used to tie a few buildings public buildings together, or (an a sad number of cases) not used at all.
There entire counties that have fiber running to every minor town. (Google county fiber network = 14 million hits).
Most of these towns don't have fiber running everywhere. So turning it on ind the downtown core is often avoided simply because it will cause a clamor for fiber everywhere from the rest of the tax payers. Some of it has been in the ground so long nobody knows if it works or not. Since it wasn't being used, in some cities it has been damaged by construction and nobody was even aware of it. Some towns are putting up FREE PUBLIC WIFI, using their fiber. And almost as soon as it is turned on the "won't somebody think of the children" crowd shows up demanding censorship. There are a lot of political land mines to dodge when putting this stuff to use. So far too much of it sits idle.
Re:the Alberta Supernet (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That's socialism (Score:2, Informative)
Socialism is defined by the character of trying to maximize the social good of government, regardless of the common conflation between socialism and communism.
Baloney. Socialism is government ownership of the means of production. Period. Sometimes that works well. Sometimes it turns out bad. But to say it is "socialism" only when it turns out well, is nonsense.
Re:Started out impressive (Score:5, Informative)
...
You are an idiot.
The 9/10 is 9/10th of a cent. So the price is really 3.999, instead of 3.99.
Re:That's socialism (Score:3, Informative)
Nothing is stopping private companies from doing this, yet none of them do.
False [wikipedia.org].
Re:That's socialism (Score:1, Informative)
Socialism is government ownership of the means of production.
No, you're thinking of communism. And yes, there is a difference, despite their constant interchangeable use in conservative talking points.
Also, neither one is fascism.
Ashland, OR (Score:4, Informative)
Ashland, Oregon did this [ashlandfiber.net] many years ago. From what I've heard from people that live there, it's worked out well.