Own Your Own Internet Connection

You guys should watch this video of Google’s policy analyst talking about actually owning the internet connection that runs to your house. I’m not sure how feasible it is but it sure makes you think.

There are already net co-ops. "What If" is already happening in areas where the regular ISPs are just not cutting it.

yea i remember a story like atliest 5 years ago, of some town out south west, that the ISP's refused to connect up.

They all pitched in like a town of 200 people or more, pitched in and set up there own internet coop.

i remember the server area that handled all the traffic was in a BARN ^_^ i remember it well. i forget if it was in a magazine or on the internet. but i remember it clearly.

I remember also that the original start up costs were like 2k per person, but after that the fee's were incredibly small. They had to run the fiber etc or hire a company in to run the fiber.

anyone remember what im talking about?

Originally Posted by Journier

yea i remember a story like atliest 5 years ago, of some town out south west, that the ISP's refused to connect up.

They all pitched in like a town of 200 people or more, pitched in and set up there own internet coop.

i remember the server area that handled all the traffic was in a BARN ^_^ i remember it well. i forget if it was in a magazine or on the internet. but i remember it clearly.

I remember also that the original start up costs were like 2k per person who wanted it, but after that the fee's were incredibly small. They had to run the fiber etc or hire a company in to run the fiber.

anyone remember what im talking about?

yea

Well this can work in small towns/rural areas I'm sure, however in cities I can't see this as working and here's why... my example.

In San Francisco, my city, there was talk of having free wifi access throughout the city, details were not ultra clear, probably wouldn't be available to EVERY home, but quite a bit of coverage. Then a couple things occurred... first the ISP bitched like nobody's business, I"m sure they bribed their fair share of council members too because if you can get internet for free and don't really use that much of a connection why should you pay $50/month to comcast/AT&T for a connection? second the city as much of a fucking money grubbing cocksmoker that "they" are, wanted to get as much potential revenue out of it as possible, i.e. they would not let any company just set up transmitters all over the city even if it wasn't the city's property they were using. As such one of the companies was Google I believe, decided it wasn't worth the hassle and away that went.

Now if I wanted to run fiber, you'd be damn sure the city would charge me fees to run it underground or on poles, and then they'd charge me fees for the permits just to run the wire, then fees for the impact studies, and more fees just because I'm trying to get away from the fees, So I couldn't see that as feasible, at least here in the city. Now I plan on having a plot of land out in the boonies sometime soon so maybe then I'll think about it again... although using satellite might be just as easy.

I am curious how that would actually work though, do you just show up at these PoP locations wave your fiber around and say plug me in?

Originally Posted by sfsuphysics

I am curious how that would actually work though, do you just show up at these PoP locations wave your fiber around and say plug me in?

My thoughts exactly. If, somehow, you were able to find some already-in-place wire that wasn't being utilized and manged to purchase it, how would the agreement between you and the PoP work?

I actually live in a rural area that is only served by coops (both power and connectivity). They are currently deploying FTTH throughout the service area (5 counties, approx 15000 sq. mi).

They are normally quite a ways behind the curve, but the infrastructure was getting so poor that they decided to pony up and fix it right to make it more futureproof. I'm excited to see it complete.

You guys are missing the point here...

Those fiber optic lines have to go somewhere right? You might own it, but this is just a move by big brother to more closely monitor Internet traffic. Its all in the fine print boys and girls. Sure it will be fast and everyone is gonna be getting it eventually, but do we really want to have the government literally one or two hops away? The new administration can regulate as it chooses. Check out some of the new laws being put in place for increased control/snooping from the Fed. Yikes...

Forgot to mention that Google is part of the Council on Foreign Relations. This is a big move that will happening in way more countries than just the US. Google has positioned themselves in a BIG power seat when it comes to some of these new broadband technologies.

Originally Posted by trudude

You guys are missing the point here...

Those fiber optic lines have to go somewhere right? You might own it, but this is just a move by big brother to more closely monitor Internet traffic. Its all in the fine print boys and girls. Sure it will be fast and everyone is gonna be getting it eventually, but do we really want to have the government literally one or two hops away? The new administration can regulate as it chooses. Check out some of the new laws being put in place for increased control/snooping from the Fed. Yikes...

Wait a minute: you're telling me that ordinary, everyday citizens pooling together their resources to buy [i]their own[i] fiber optic cable and connect it the Internet is somehow a ploy by the government to more closely monitor Internet traffic?

What?

damn, I forgot my tinfoil hat at work.

This is how I envisioned the federal broadband stimulus working.

With fed money you wire FTTH for everyone, then say, "hey ISPs... who wants at it?"

sure maybe ATT, verizon, and the cables balked at one city trying to get their own fiber. But you throw 5 billion dollar or whatever at free FTTH deployments and see what happens.

I could see this work in mid to large cities, because of the large quantity of people the price of fiber would be cheap, verses a smaller town where the costs will be high.

If my block chipped in, I would seriously do this. I mean hell a lifetime of super HSI for the rest of my life for just a start up cost of 2k and a low monthly charge by several competition is a win. I mean I've been paying 500/year for internet, for the last 5 years, I think it would pay off eventually.

This works great for condos. Developer can include the price right in the cost of the condo. ISPs typically oversell bandwidth as much as 40:1, on a 1Gbit line you could easily accommodate 200 100/100Mbit connections. Install gigabit ethernet right to wall-jacks in every condo and you've got damn fast connections for everyone.

how many times did he say "um" and "uh"?

A number of municipalities are already building out the fiber to the home where local telcos drag their feet. The fiber is owned by the government, and citizens pick an ISP to provide internet, TV, phone, etc over it. The strange thing is that these are typically far more efficient than large telco attempts. This makes no sense to me as telcos should be able to implement fiber to the home much more efficiently due to economies of scale and experience.

Originally Posted by Atamido

This makes no sense to me as telcos should be able to implement fiber to the home much more efficiently due to economies of scale and experience.

They can do it more efficiently.... but that efficiency gets in the way of profits for the owners of stock in the company and the fat cat upper managers so the money never gets applied to its necessary purpose. This is American capitalism at work. Sucks if your not a stock owner or VP or higher.

So basically, if you can gleam the cube, you can own fiber....

I think this is a great idea. Cut out this crummy cable providers - and get some real competition.

Sign me up!

Umm.... we do this in business as it is already.

Good luck at getting people and cities to agree to this for private home ownerships. If anyone has ever bored fiber, they will know that it's not something a home handyman can do... you need equipment, permits, and it's shit expensive.