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It's always been weird to me how the Bay Area has to deal with the same monopoly internet providers as everyone else in the country. Surely we have enough tale
by panic 6y ago
It's always been weird to me how the Bay Area has to deal with the same monopoly internet providers as everyone else in the country. Surely we have enough talent and capital here to provide free, high-speed internet for the entire area. I guess this is one explanation for why it hasn't happened yet.
- redis_mlc 6y agoIn the US, providers typically negotiate exclusive long-term contracts with local government. The argument is that's the only way to make it profitable enough to invest in building out the infrastructure. The only way around that is for localities to build out the backbone themselves and then request competitive bids, but the providers counter that strategy by lobbying state representatives to ban local Internet infra in the name of privatization or core competency. One workaround for that would be what's done in old European cities where you can't dig or easily run wires/fiber: just build out a backbone for wireless infra, then let providers compete on last mile wifi/billing/service/price.
- gruez 6y agoFYI, you seem to be shadowbanned. You might want to email the mods about that.
- BuyMyBitcoins 6y agoThe Bay Area can disrupt anything, except for the local party machine.
- worker767424 6y agoWhat about Sonic?
- yalok 6y agoThey are slowly spreading their reach from SF area down south, so will take them quite a few years to be at South Bay unfortunately
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Baeocystin 6y agoI live in the middle of Gilroy (southern end of the Bay Area) and I'm eagerly awaiting my StarLink dish because local internet goes down so often that a beta satellite service is going to be better right off the bat. And I live in town! Head east of the freeway, and the best you can get is rotting DSL or oversubscribed microwave relay. It's ridiculous.
- tdeck 6y agoThose companies are monopolies because they're effective at getting local governments to do what they want, having practiced in thousands of municipalities. In that way SF isn't much different.