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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsComcast’s worst nightmare: How Tennessee could save America’s Internet
Chattanooga's public electric utility offers residents lightning-quick connections -- much to big telecoms' dismay
DAVID SIROTA
The business lobby often demands that government get out of the way of private corporations, so that competition can flourish and high-quality services can be efficiently delivered to as many consumers as possible. Yet, in an epic fight over telecommunications policy, the paradigm is now being flipped on its head, with corporate forces demanding the government squelch competition and halt the expansion of those high-quality services. Whether and how federal officials act may ultimately shape the future of Americas information economy.
The front line in this fight is Chattanooga, Tennessee, where officials at the citys public electric utility, EPB, realized that smart-grid energy infrastructure could also provide consumers super-fast Internet speeds at competitive prices. A few years ago, those officials decided to act on that revelation. Like a publicly traded corporation, the utility issued bonds to raise resources to invest in the new broadband project. Similarly, just as many private corporations ended up receiving federal stimulus dollars, so did EPB, which put those monies into its new network.
The result is a system that now provides the nations fastest broadband speeds at prices often cheaper than the private competition. As the Chattanooga Times Free Press noted a few years back, EPB offers faster Internet speeds for the money, and shows equal pep in both uploading and downloading content, with Comcast and AT&T trailing on quickness. Meanwhile, EPB officials tell the Washington Post that the utilitys telecom services have become a great profit center an assertion confirmed by a Standard & Poor credit upgrade notice pointing out that the utility is now covering all costs from telephone, video and Internet revenue, as well as providing significant financial benefit to the electric system.
This is great news for local businesses and taxpayers but it is terrible news for private telecom companies, who not only fear being outcompeted and outperformed in Chattanooga, but also fear the Chattanooga model being promoted in other cities. In response, those telecom firms have been abandoning the standard argument about the private sector. Indeed, as the Times Free Press reported last week, rather than insisting the private sector has inherent advantages over the public sector, the firms have gone to court insisting that EPB, as a public entity, would have an edge when competing against private companies, which would be at a disadvantage when facing an entity owned by taxpayers.
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/18/comcasts_worst_nightmare_how_tennessee_could_save_americas_internet_partner/
Squinch
(51,083 posts)Tetris_Iguana
(501 posts)I've always thought internet should be a public good since it's an absolute necessity in our society.
Now if only we could get national google fiber 👍
d_r
(6,907 posts)for a few years now. When we started we had the bottom line 30 mps, then they upgraded everyone on 30 to 50, then to 100. And no change in price. We have the best high def TV. And incredibly fast internet. You can get up to a gig for a reasonable price but we haven't needed it. We've had gig here in Chattanooga for a long time before google did it. I've seen times when between ipads and the tv and computers there have been four people on netflix at the same time with no one having a slight hiccup. And their customer service is great. We have had it go out only once - during severe tornadic type weather a tree came through the line. They had it fixed the next day and a few days later we got a letter that the interrupted time was being prorated on our bill.
Everyone loves it. It is so much better than the big cable companies. The only downside that I have ever heard anyone say is that the on demand selection isn't as deep as comcast. Honestly, it has all the on demand I've ever wanted - the tv channel stuff. I think that comcast has more pay movies and stuff on demand but I would never use it.
The other thing is, the interface and remote control doesn't feel like using an atari 2600. It isn't clunky looking and slow.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)I get a whopping 1 mps from my local cable company and it costs me about $30/month. Not exactly cutting edge. EPB sounds like a dream come true!
d_r
(6,907 posts)its crazy how uneven all this stuff is.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)Here Duke Energy runs most of the state, save for a few local co-ops and a few small municipal electtic departments.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)thwart this. 20 states have passed legislation limiting the reach of public owned utilities. They're buying up state legislatures like crazy.
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)Proof that public utilities offer better services and prices.
"The firms have gone to court insisting that EPB, as a public entity, would have an edge when competing against private companies."
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)d_r
(6,907 posts)liberalla
(9,277 posts)reminder to me to read this later... thanks!