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Network Communications The Internet United States

More Than 750 American Communities Have Built Their Own Internet Networks (vice.com) 68

Jason Koebler shares a report from Motherboard: According to a freshly updated map of community-owned networks, more than 750 communities across the United States have embraced operating their own broadband network, are served by local rural electric cooperatives, or have made at least some portion of a local fiber network publicly available. The map was created by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit that advocates for local economies. The Institute's latest update indicates that there's now 55 municipal networks serving 108 communities with a publicly owned fiber-to-the-home internet network. 76 communities now offer access to a locally owned cable network reaching most or all of the community, and more than 258 communities are now served by a rural electric cooperative. Many more communities could expand their local offerings according to the group's data. 197 communities already have some publicly owned fiber service available to parts of the community, while more than 120 communities have publicly-owned dark (unused) fiber available for use by local residences and local area businesses. The group's map also highlights which states have erected legislative barriers to hamper these local efforts and explains what these laws actually do.
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More Than 750 American Communities Have Built Their Own Internet Networks

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  • by luvirini ( 753157 ) on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @10:18PM (#55990579)

    that as some ort of socialism, but so few people see municipal roads as such. Yet both are there for a similar reason when market forces just do not work...

    • .. results in the same thing.

      I took the time, to think it all through: A perfect communism, for example, would be the exact same market as healthy capitalist "free market". And a perfect capitalist market, would automatically be social thanks to the advantages of networking / teaming up / helping each other out. (Basically, if you help failing parts of your group over not too big valleys, you have made an investment and enjoy the benefits when they're on a mountain. And vice versa.)

      The thing that completely

    • What I find interesting is that so many people see that as some ort [sic] of socialism, but so few people see municipal roads as such.

      As you say, there is little difference. They are both fine when done privately, respecting people's rights, as in a community co-op, and wrong when they depend on force. The average municipality is close enough to a co-op anyway that if we just said "that's enough, we're not going to allow anyone to get away with using force anymore, no exceptions" they could reorganize as co-ops (with rent and voluntarily accepted terms of service instead of property taxes and ordinances) and carry on almost as they did be

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday January 24, 2018 @01:45AM (#55991191)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      As always, socialist ideas sound good to people who haven't lived under them. The problem is always the actual implementation - once the repression and arrests start, people deeply regret choosing socialism. Just ask Venezuela if you need a modern example, and history provides many more.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        As always, socialist ideas sound good to people who haven't lived under them. The problem is always the actual implementation - once the repression and arrests start, people deeply regret choosing socialism. Just ask Venezuela if you need a modern example, and history provides many more.

        As always, monopolies sound good to people who haven't had to do business with them. The problem is always the actual implementation - once they start charging you whatever-the-fuck they want for unusually shitty service, be

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • They're not socialist. Duh. The government doesn't own the means of production. They're market economies. Why do you think they're doing so well? Plus, they don't have to pay the crippling cost of their own defense. They have suckers to do it for them. And they repay this amazing free defense with protests that the Americans doing the defense are warmongering racists who need to get out of their countries. What ungrateful jerks.
    • by WallyL ( 4154209 )

      You're right. I'm not opposed to voluntary communism. Community is a wonderful thing! I'm opposed to government-enforced communism.

  • I don't know much about community internet networks, but I notice that Q-Life where I live in The Dalles is listed. The touted success story is likely mostly true with Q-Life being important in bringing the Google data centers here, but the Internet service available here is about as bad and expensive as anywhere.
  • My town has a municipal ISP, run by our municipal power company. Our power rates are lower than the neighboring towns, which are served by commercial operators who have been asking for double-digit percent increases in power rates every year. In contrast, our power company gave everyone in town $20 off a bill last year because they had too much money in their operating fund. The service people live in town, and are very responsive to outages, we often have power back before other towns served by commercial

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