Rumors that Google Fiber will next “do” Austin. While if true, that’s great news for Austin… but perhaps also good news for the rest of us.
Many of us, who hope for a future of affordable access and the end of the digital divide… look for something different than a future of broadband under total control of the cartel of big Telecoms and the giant media conglomerates like Comcast.
Those players clearly want to meter, and gate, and limit broadband access, and thereby keep prices high as possible for as long as possible…as well as squeezing out “streaming video” competitors…
Having the kind of competition that Google Fiber brings to the market is a good change, and the more places in US they go, the better we’ll be. They will force competitors to invest to “keep up”…and may well be an alternative that will incorporate some of the municipal open access model that Gary and others hoped could prevail in the US.
Of course, it’s still a challenge to serve very spread out populations as in many western states including NM. Not sure how Google Fiber would help us with that, but maybe if you have the Fiber nodes in key places, it would enable better rural access somehow.
Just a FYI, this “Speed Test” youtube below was made using ScreenCastOMatic, and while the numbers shown are hard to credence, it’s likely not a fake video. For comparison, I just ran Speed Test on my Comcast Cable and had 23 Mbps download, and 8 Mbps upload.
Even Google competition may not be enough – history shows that oligopolies eventuall act like monopolies which is not good for the populace unless you believe in the tooth fairy.
FDR had it right; when one is dealing with a natural monopoly (i.e. a public utility), either it must be publicly owned or regulated like hell!
Here is a 1932 FDR quote that applies:
“My answer has been, as it is tonight, to point out these plain principles,” Roosevelt told the crowd. “That where a community — a city or county or a district — is not satisfied with the service rendered or the rates charged by the private utility, it has the undeniable basic right, as one of its functions of government, one of its functions of home rule, to set up … its own governmentally owned and operated service.”
Too bad FDR is dead and left us no political progeny.