Comments on: All Roads Don’t Lead to Disney http://citmedia.org/blog/2006/06/29/all-roads-dont-lead-to-disney/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:10:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Mark Petrovic http://citmedia.org/blog/2006/06/29/all-roads-dont-lead-to-disney/#comment-4474 Mark Petrovic Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:31:42 +0000 http://citmedia.org/blog/2006/06/29/all-roads-dont-lead-to-disney/#comment-4474 In order for "them not to get away with it", we are going to have to provide for ourselves. Stop renting and begin owning. Networks. We cannot leave our children something we do not own. From http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060629.html "The obvious answer is for regular folks like you and me to own our own last mile Internet connection. This idea, which Frankston supports, is well presented by Bill St. Arnaud in a presentation you'll find among this week's links. (Bill is senior director of advanced networks with CANARIE, which is responsible for the coordination and implementation of Canada's next generation optical Internet initiative.) The idea is simple: run Fiber To The Home (FTTH) and pay for it as a community of customers -- a cooperative. The cost per fiber drop, according to Bill's estimate, is $1,000-$1,500 if 40 percent of homes participate. Using the higher $1,500 figure, the cost to finance the system over 10 years at today's prime rate would be $17.42 per month. What we'd get for our $17.42 per month is a gigabit-capable circuit with no bits inside - just a really fast connection to some local point of presence where you could connect to ANY ISP wanting to operate in your city. "It's honest funding," says Frankston. "The current system is like buying drinks so you can watch the strippers. It is corrupt and opaque. We should pay for our wires in our communities just like we pay for the wires in our homes." In order for “them not to get away with it”, we are going to have to provide for ourselves. Stop renting and begin owning. Networks. We cannot leave our children something we do not own.

From

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060629.html

“The obvious answer is for regular folks like you and me to own our own last mile Internet connection. This idea, which Frankston supports, is well presented by Bill St. Arnaud in a presentation you’ll find among this week’s links. (Bill is senior director of advanced networks with CANARIE, which is responsible for the coordination and implementation of Canada’s next generation optical Internet initiative.) The idea is simple: run Fiber To The Home (FTTH) and pay for it as a community of customers — a cooperative. The cost per fiber drop, according to Bill’s estimate, is $1,000-$1,500 if 40 percent of homes participate. Using the higher $1,500 figure, the cost to finance the system over 10 years at today’s prime rate would be $17.42 per month.

What we’d get for our $17.42 per month is a gigabit-capable circuit with no bits inside - just a really fast connection to some local point of presence where you could connect to ANY ISP wanting to operate in your city.

“It’s honest funding,” says Frankston. “The current system is like buying drinks so you can watch the strippers. It is corrupt and opaque. We should pay for our wires in our communities just like we pay for the wires in our homes.”

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