[1st-mile-nm] Should Denver city government enter the internet business to compete with Comcast

[Christopher Mitchell]

There is evidence that the "examples of how these are mismanaged and
eventually fail, or are forced to be picked up by a private entity" are
written by organizations funded by cable and telephone companies to scare
other communities from not investing in networks.

There are some networks that were poorly run by munis but the vast majority
have been successful. You rarely see people claiming that big corporations
are unable to run networks because they screw it up despite a pretty rotten
record in many ways.

Denver is not proposing, as best I can tell, to build some kind of citywide
ISP. They want some basic authority for limited investments specifically
aimed at families that the market is not interested in serving.

Christopher Mitchell
Director, Community Broadband Networks
Institute for Local Self-Reliance

MuniNetworks.org <http://www.muninetworks.org/>
@communitynets
612-545-5185


On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 10:47 AM Trey Scarborough <trey at 3dsc.co> wrote:

> I would agree they typically do improve service in areas where they will
> be likely to get the recognition and return on investment when threatened.
> The problem comes in when the municipalities actually build some companies
> like ATT use it as an excuse to abandon portions of there network that
> don't make money. There are also many examples of how these are mismanaged
> and eventually fail, or are forced to be picked up by a private entity.
>
>
> On 8/2/20 8:49 AM, Steve Ross wrote:
>
> My data from every USA county shows that when municipalities can threaten
> to build, carriers fall into line and improve service.
>
> I might add that no carrier has ever disputed the data.
>
> Steve Ross
>
> On Sat, Aug 1, 2020, 10:24 PM John Osmon <josmon at rigozsaurus.com> wrote:
>
>> No -- Denver city government should not enter the internet business to
>> compete with Comcast.
>>
>> However, Denver *SHOULD* provide connectivity between residents and
>> multiple ISPs so that the citizens can partake in a true competitive
>> market.
>>
>> If you utilize the public right of way, you should not be able to be an
>> ISP.  You can merely connect end users to the ISP of their choice.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 01, 2020 at 05:40:21PM -0600, Tom Johnson wrote:
>> > https://www.denverpost.com/2020/08/01/denver-municipal-internet/
>> > ============================================
>> > Tom Johnson - tom at jtjohnson.com
>> > Institute for Analytic Journalism   --     Santa Fe, NM USA
>> > 505.577.6482(c)                                    505.473.9646(h)
>> > *NM Foundation for Open Government* <http://nmfog.org>
>> > *Check out It's The People's Data
>> > <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-The-Peoples-Data/1599854626919671>*
>> >
>> > ============================================
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