5 ms·

> providing perspective as a user of city-supplied fiber internet: Yup, I live in another city that has a setup like this (Conway, AR of all places). Ours even

by flutas 3y ago

> providing perspective as a user of city-supplied fiber internet: Yup, I live in another city that has a setup like this (Conway, AR of all places). Ours even goes a little further than EPB though. Electricity, Water, Sewer, Trash, Cable, Phone, Internet (already fiber for recent builds, upgrading all to it currently) all through one company that's owned by the city...it's amazing. One bill a month, and my bill is ~300/mo for all services including 1Gb/s fiber. Plus the other aspects of it. Tech support is someone sitting downtown, power outages are fixed in record time... just so much is right with the model. https://conwaycorp.com/ https://conwaycorp.com/

ProllyInfamous 3y ago
Sound "dreamy..." our Scenic City still pays American Water for their monthly extortions =D
ToucanLoucan 3y ago
I wish we could get a setup like that going where I live, but sadly I live in the flyover states and this would NEVER play with our voter base, they'd be screaming socialism at the top of their lungs until they turned blue in the face. At least we got fiber, finally. It isn't state-run but it is a local telecom, the price is reasonable, the service is incredible and the uptime is great. I still get letters occasionally from Spectrum begging me to come back and their PROMOTIONAL PRICE is $10 more per month than my 600 parallel, for slower service. Absolutely brain-dead, I'm not entirely sure the marketing people for cable companies are still living in our reality. Why would you even bother sending these out? Who in their right mind is going to pay more money for worse service to possibly the single greatest and most widely known avatar for corporate avarice, the cable company? I don't know a single person in my area who still has cable internet if fiber is available to them. Spectrum must be hemorrhaging customers. Edit: and if it isn't obvious, yeah I'm a cord cutter too, though tbh there was never a cord in my life to cut. I haven't had cable since I moved out of my parents house, and if not for semi-frequent hotel stays for work, I'd not be exposed to television at all. And said minimal exposure lets me verify that I'm missing absolutely nothing by not having the idiot box in my home. I cannot comprehend people who pay up to the range of hundreds of dollars a month to have a firehose of ads and mediocre bullshit pointed at their faces as a recreational activity. Not gonna yuck someones yum, you like what you like, but it ain't for me and I truly cannot understand why anyone wants it at all, certainly not enough to spend that kind of money on it.
- jghn 3y ago
  > I live in the flyover states and this would NEVER play with our voter base GP said they live in Arkansas.
  - ToucanLoucan 3y ago
    Oh yeah, look at that. Damn. I wonder how they pulled that off. Any time anything like that is suggested around here the culture warriors come in red faced and screaming.
    - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
      >the culture warriors come in red faced and screaming. I enjoy reminding these typically-babyboomers that Medicaid Part D (subsidized prescriptions) is "about as socialist as it gets" — they get low-priced medications, after largely having paid [relatively] nothing in to this "entitlement." Why have they paid almost nothing in to Part D? Because Part D is relatively new, thus passing the costs of medicine on to younger generations/taxpayers. I highly recommend, for better understanding your neighbors (of any age), that you read "A Generation of Sociopaths" — chocked full of statistics to help everybody see why we commoners need "socialism," or whatever they want to call it... BECAUSE IT MAKES LIVING BEARABLE, LESS EXPENSIVE, AND GD you cannot make up their lifetimes of hypocrasies.
      - ToucanLoucan 3y ago
        I'm about 2/3 the way through it actually! It's a good read. That said, what do they say when you point this stuff out? I've been attending local city meetings for a bit now, and when confronted with this stuff, they don't change their minds, they just double and triple down, get even angrier, and screech even louder about MUH FREEDOM. I don't even get angry, I'm just like, explaining how society works (pooling of resources so people can get what they need) and they absolutely melt the fuck down! It's crazy!
        ProllyInfamous 3y ago
bloomingeek 3y ago
>One bill a month, and my bill is ~300/mo for all services including 1Gb/s fiber. Send some of that to the Tulsa area, please! Here, it's the land of Cox Cable, reliable, but $$$.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
  I hate Cox with the passion of a thousand burning suns, but fuck me if there's actually a competitor. When AT&T first started offering fiber I called them to ask about where was at because I was moving and wanted to factor it into my move. I was told they had an agreement with Cox not to reveal that information. You either happened to be in the right spot or you didn't. To this day you still cannot call them and get that information. fuck Cox.
  - btilly 3y ago
    Same opinion historically, but in the last 3 years they've done a lot of upgrading around where I am and actually seem to be doing a better job. We'll see how long that lasts. But at the moment they are being good.

by flutas 3y ago

ProllyInfamous 3y ago

Sound "dreamy..." our Scenic City still pays American Water for their monthly extortions =D

ToucanLoucan 3y ago

I wish we could get a setup like that going where I live, but sadly I live in the flyover states and this would NEVER play with our voter base, they'd be screaming socialism at the top of their lungs until they turned blue in the face. At least we got fiber, finally. It isn't state-run but it is a local telecom, the price is reasonable, the service is incredible and the uptime is great. I still get letters occasionally from Spectrum begging me to come back and their PROMOTIONAL PRICE is $10 more per month than my 600 parallel, for slower service. Absolutely brain-dead, I'm not entirely sure the marketing people for cable companies are still living in our reality. Why would you even bother sending these out? Who in their right mind is going to pay more money for worse service to possibly the single greatest and most widely known avatar for corporate avarice, the cable company? I don't know a single person in my area who still has cable internet if fiber is available to them. Spectrum must be hemorrhaging customers. Edit: and if it isn't obvious, yeah I'm a cord cutter too, though tbh there was never a cord in my life to cut. I haven't had cable since I moved out of my parents house, and if not for semi-frequent hotel stays for work, I'd not be exposed to television at all. And said minimal exposure lets me verify that I'm missing absolutely nothing by not having the idiot box in my home. I cannot comprehend people who pay up to the range of hundreds of dollars a month to have a firehose of ads and mediocre bullshit pointed at their faces as a recreational activity. Not gonna yuck someones yum, you like what you like, but it ain't for me and I truly cannot understand why anyone wants it at all, certainly not enough to spend that kind of money on it.

jghn 3y ago
> I live in the flyover states and this would NEVER play with our voter base GP said they live in Arkansas.
- ToucanLoucan 3y ago
  Oh yeah, look at that. Damn. I wonder how they pulled that off. Any time anything like that is suggested around here the culture warriors come in red faced and screaming.
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    >the culture warriors come in red faced and screaming. I enjoy reminding these typically-babyboomers that Medicaid Part D (subsidized prescriptions) is "about as socialist as it gets" — they get low-priced medications, after largely having paid [relatively] nothing in to this "entitlement." Why have they paid almost nothing in to Part D? Because Part D is relatively new, thus passing the costs of medicine on to younger generations/taxpayers. I highly recommend, for better understanding your neighbors (of any age), that you read "A Generation of Sociopaths" — chocked full of statistics to help everybody see why we commoners need "socialism," or whatever they want to call it... BECAUSE IT MAKES LIVING BEARABLE, LESS EXPENSIVE, AND GD you cannot make up their lifetimes of hypocrasies.
    - ToucanLoucan 3y ago
      I'm about 2/3 the way through it actually! It's a good read. That said, what do they say when you point this stuff out? I've been attending local city meetings for a bit now, and when confronted with this stuff, they don't change their minds, they just double and triple down, get even angrier, and screech even louder about MUH FREEDOM. I don't even get angry, I'm just like, explaining how society works (pooling of resources so people can get what they need) and they absolutely melt the fuck down! It's crazy!
      - ProllyInfamous 3y ago

bloomingeek 3y ago

>One bill a month, and my bill is ~300/mo for all services including 1Gb/s fiber. Send some of that to the Tulsa area, please! Here, it's the land of Cox Cable, reliable, but $$$.

PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
I hate Cox with the passion of a thousand burning suns, but fuck me if there's actually a competitor. When AT&T first started offering fiber I called them to ask about where was at because I was moving and wanted to factor it into my move. I was told they had an agreement with Cox not to reveal that information. You either happened to be in the right spot or you didn't. To this day you still cannot call them and get that information. fuck Cox.
- btilly 3y ago
  Same opinion historically, but in the last 3 years they've done a lot of upgrading around where I am and actually seem to be doing a better job. We'll see how long that lasts. But at the moment they are being good.