Take THAT Bell South and Cox.....Voters say "yes" to fiber in Lafayette

[AnnInLa]

At the Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis, this was a much-touted project, and Lafayette's effort was being closely watched by media reformers all over the country. If municipals can offer lower internet services to poor people, they will have access to information...and the more info they have, the more likely they are to VOTE and vote for Dems. It also breaks the monopolies that both Bell South and Cox have in this area, and puts utilities in the hands of the PUBLIC rather than private companies. In this age of privatization of everything, this is huge! (in our part of the country.)

Voters say 'yes' to fiber

Claire Taylor
[e-mail]


John Rowland/[e-mail]



Lafayette voters turned out in surprising numbers Saturday for an election with a single issue. With a 27 percent turnout, they voted 12,290 to 7,507, or 62 percent to 38 percent, to proceed with the controversial fiber-to-the-home project.



Saturday's vote authorizes Lafayette Utilities System to sell up to $125 million in bonds for a fiber to the home and business project. It will involve extending fiber optics cable down every city street, then offering residents and businesses the option of receiving high-speed Internet, telephone and/or cable TV service through LUS. City officials said they believe it can offer those services at lower prices than incumbents such as BellSouth and Cox Communications.





"Two years from today we ought to begin serving our first customers," Huval said.



Fiber supporters were pleased with the results and what fiber may bring Lafayette.

"This opens the door for every municipality in the nation to look at how they can do what we did," said Don Bertrand of Fibre911. "We deserve connectivity and as we did in 1896 with the electricity, if you won't bring it to us, we'll do it ourselves."



"Lafayette's going to be on the world's map and the face of this city will change over time thanks to this project," Dorsey said. "We'll be able to stay here, and have high-paying jobs in science, software engineering and the medical field."

more at http://www.acadiananow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050717/NEWS01/507170362/1002

[ixion]

1. most of the country should be fiber by now... the only thing holding up

the show are megacorps like Cox and BellSouth.

When I first started working on the net, back in '95, there was a talk of a fiber optic trial in the Keys. Common thought was, at that time, that we'd be fiber optic by the year 2000.

Riiiiiight. :eyes:

Thanks to companies like Global Crossing, et. al., and companies like Cox and BellSouth, we're still dealing with the same tired, copper-based infrastructure.

The same is true for cars, batteries and just about any other major industry (Big Auto, Big Oil, Big Utility and so on). These people are doing their best to bring about the downfall of our civilization by stifling innovation in the name of short term profits. :grr:

[firefox]

2. Broadband in Korea

There was an writer/analyst on technology on Charlie Rose about a month ago. He called the communication companies "Soviets" and talked about how things could be different if access was opened to competition. He spoke of a bank in Korea that entered the market when the government outlined the playing field. They entered the market offering 8 mps broadband for $22 a month. Now competition has driven speeds up to 22 mps at the same $22 a month, while we in the US get onesies and twosies for $40 or more.

I hope the stranglehold is broken with the event reported in this thread.

[acmejack]

3. We can hope, but don't count on it.

As long as they can make money on the existing technology, they will do nothing. The worst part is that they can support faster speeds now, but they want to wring another $20 or so out you to let you have it.

Capitalism will eventually either devour us or itself, wonder which will happen first?