This is all the more reason why we need a municipal fiber network in major cities (dense urban areas). Don't get me wrong: I love what Sonic is doing, and plan

This is all the more reason why we need a municipal fiber network in major cities (dense urban areas). Don't get me wrong: I love what Sonic is doing, and plan to move to them as my ISP very soon. But the fact that it's so hard for Sonic to build out the fiber infrastructure shows that this is where a government run infrastructure makes sense; after all, isn't the government supposed to take on the massive infrastructure projects? I live in San Francisco. I've been reaching out to my supervisor about this community fiber thing, but to no avail. In the meantime, he goes along with AT&T's plan to install 100s of refrigerator-sized boxes on sidewalks, to provide their "uverse"-brand Internet (which is not GbE). A handful of citizens -vs- highly-paid suits of AT&T? Citizens always lose. Here's the problem with letting AT&T build out these boxes: they then become a monopoly. If Sonic wants to come in and provide fiber, they also need 100s of such boxes. And then Comcast. And maybe MonkeyBrains (there is such an ISP here). And so on. This is not sustainable! You can't have every ISP putting up large boxes on sidewalks! A solution is for the City to lay fiber and maintain it; and then you buy access from AT&T/Sonic/MonkeyBrains/Comcast. Only 1 set of boxes; and Internet access can come from any of the myriad gateways available. As for funding: thats what bonds are for. And plus: the increase in property values will pay for this in no time at all (via increased tax revenues). But trying to convince the politicians to listen to a citizen is impossible. They just go along with the lobbyists, who are just looking after their own short-term interests.