Municipal fiber towns
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My hometown went fiber a few years back after years of ILEC never updating the POTS network to even be capable of crappy basic ADSL and the local cable company never updating the network to get DOCSIS2 speeds.
It was actually quite interesting to watch in 2006 when it was first announced that the city was going to pursue options. Charter came in to the city hall meetings saying that this would waste tax payer dollars, etc, etc.
When the residents rebuffed that, and proceeded with fact finding, Charter suddenly needed to have a fleet of trucks in town all day everyday upgrading the network. Cable speeds increased dramatically from 2007 to 2010.
While the service still has a few hiccups, mostly around the set top boxes having issues, most residents love the service.
While pondering how much I will miss the service, even though I have only been using it 2 weeks, I decided to check their pricing scheme.
Does it really seem fare to jack business users on a varying scale based on speed? The only difference between residential and business service plans is the static IP.
I do understand that a business is more likely to use the upstream side of the data more than home users (well those that do not torrent). but the download is really going to be heavier on home use in the evenings. So if the static IP costs $10 for the essential plan, why does it cost $70 for ultimate II
Link to website: http://www.highlandcommunicationservices.com/
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What other municipal towns do any of you know about? How does the service compare to other options?
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@JaredBusch said:
Does it really seem fare to jack business users on a varying scale based on speed?
Bloody hell, yes it does when you're paying a song and a dance for that fiber!!!
I pay for this: https://www.shaw.ca/internet/highspeed-60/
Which is 90+fees+tax for 60/3
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$75 for 40/20 Cable is the cheapest here. But Most of the time I get about 30/10 in real speed. The backend equipment does not support Docsis 3.0 here (even though the majority of it is actually fiber, the box in my yard converts it from fiber to coaxial)
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Weird that by Ultimate V they are at parity.
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A lot of the towns here in Colorado already have or are launching their own services. Unfortunately the one where I live isn't one of them yet.
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I don't know about fair, but it is a common practice to make business services pay more than residential. In a way it is a form of subsidy. Businesses pay enough for there to be profit so that residential service is as cheap as possible. I'm not totally opposed to that scheme, but I feel that it doesn't work very well. People run businesses from their homes, some businesses use very little data. It's a murky definition and static IPs are a silly thing to ration out in that way, IMHO.
So while I'm not going to go so far as to weigh in on it being fair or unfair, I think that it is an additional level of complication that is unnecessary and probably not beneficial to anyone, really.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I don't know about fair, but it is a common practice to make business services pay more than residential.
But not government in Virginia. All Cable providers when they sign their Monopoly agreements, er I mean usage contracts. With the localities are required to provide any government agency or government school, library with free cable tv and basic internet. Though pretty much no one is using the cable internet as
you can get better. But the Cable TV business package is highly used in schools and libraries and increases the cost for other business using the service since theirs is free. -
Comcast has been doing something to block speedtest.net here the site works but the test doesn't.
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Wow! I would dream for those prices!!!
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Comcast has been doing something to block speedtest.net here the site works but the test doesn't.
Not information that they want people to find out. That's how bad it is.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Comcast has been doing something to block speedtest.net here the site works but the test doesn't.
Not information that they want people to find out. That's how bad it is.
It actually isn't bad. I get 10-15ms latency most of the time with 30-40mb down. 10-20mb up.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Comcast has been doing something to block speedtest.net here the site works but the test doesn't.
Not information that they want people to find out. That's how bad it is.
It actually isn't bad. I get 10-15ms latency most of the time with 30-40mb down. 10-20mb up.
But what are they selling?
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@Dashrender said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Comcast has been doing something to block speedtest.net here the site works but the test doesn't.
Not information that they want people to find out. That's how bad it is.
It actually isn't bad. I get 10-15ms latency most of the time with 30-40mb down. 10-20mb up.
But what are they selling?
It's a 40mb down, 20up package. Only thing I can get without having a TV package.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I don't know about fair, but it is a common practice to make business services pay more than residential. In a way it is a form of subsidy. Businesses pay enough for there to be profit so that residential service is as cheap as possible. I'm not totally opposed to that scheme, but I feel that it doesn't work very well. People run businesses from their homes, some businesses use very little data. It's a murky definition and static IPs are a silly thing to ration out in that way, IMHO.
I was not complaining about it being "fair" to charge a business more. Just that the "more" seems to vary for no reason based on speed.
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Oh, yes the variance is all over the place.
