[*] isen.blog: Broadband without Internet ain't worth squat

Tom Poe tompoe at fngi.net
Wed May 6 18:44:09 CDT 2009


John Lange wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-05-06 at 17:18 -0500, Tom Poe wrote:
>   
>> John:  Interesting points.  On the matter of the $50 per house model, I 
>> mentioned it as an example of how low-cost a decentralized approach is, 
>> today.  There is good reason this model isn't widely adopted.  My 
>> personal experience was just a few months ago, when I approached mayor 
>> Jim Erbs, mayor of Charles City, Iowa, where I live.  I proposed a 
>> community initiative that would use a local broadband infrastructure 
>> based on open-mesh.com technology.  The proposal identified a need to 
>> have every child be able to connect to the local school network from 
>> their homes to gain a true 21st century education.  I received a letter 
>> from our mayor, indicating the city would not support such an 
>> initiative.
>>     
>
> Uh? If your proposal is for a truly decentralized mesh network, then why
> are you asking for someone to centrally approve, fund or manage it?
>
> A truly decentralized mesh network wouldn't need anything from anyone.
> All it requires is a community of users to setup the devices and "mesh"
> together.
>
>   
>>   I pushed back, and was told that the executives at Qwest, 
>> our regional telephone provider, would not permit it to happen.
>>     
>
> Again, if it was a truly decentralized mesh network then there wouldn't
> be anything they could do to stop it nor could there possibly be
> anything illegal about it.
>
> My understanding is that providers in the US have objected to
> municipalities spending money to setup public internet access that
> competes with their services.
>
> If each user is spending their own money and you're not asking for tax
> dollars, there is nothing they can object to.
>
> Regards,
>   
John:  Well said. 
Tom


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