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There's a step in between Comcast's stranglehold and full mesh nets: municipal broadband/fiber. The more towns get municipal fiber, the more Comcast's grip loo
by orthecreedence 9y ago
There's a step in between Comcast's stranglehold and full mesh nets: municipal broadband/fiber.
The more towns get municipal fiber, the more Comcast's grip loosens, until they're forced to compete at a local level with local ISPs run by people you know and trust who support Net Neutrality.
If a local ISP doesn't support Net Neutrality, drop their ass and use one of the 20 other ISPs that rent the infrastructure from the city.
This is the real shift we need. Net Neutrality regulation will be ping-ponging in various parts of the government for the rest of time...which is a symptom of a much larger problem: the public currently doesn't own the infrastructure, and we need to.
- holtalanm 9y agothis. 100% this.
- CodeWriter23 9y agoI am a fan of muni broadband as a competitive alternative to the incumbents. But wouldn’t that enable a demagogue mayor to issue censorship directives via Executive Order?
- orthecreedence 9y agoIf said mayor never wants to see another term, I guess it's within the realm of possibility. Also, at that point, the situation is the same as now (with one organization calling all the shots) but at least it's contained to one town.
- acdha 9y agoThey could theoretically but there's a big difference because that's in the public sphere and subject to much higher scrutiny. A major making that decision would have to answer about their legal authority to do so; public records laws would apply to anything used in that process; the local council and prosecutors, etc. would have an easier time getting information and acting on it, and the local citizens would be able to vote them out in the next election. That's not to say that this works perfectly everywhere but the framework is setup to be a lot more open than the workings of a private company.