The city of Bountiful, Utah voted to build a $48 million fiber network to provide affordable gigabit broadband for its residents and businesses. Regional internet providers Comcast and CenturyLink opposed the plan and tried to force a public vote through a taxpayer group they fund. However, communities often build their own networks because existing options are inadequate. Data shows that community-owned networks provide better, faster, cheaper service than monopolies. While big internet providers claim community networks are a boondoggle, they are just another business plan that often succeeds due to quality proposals and local accountability. Comcast and CenturyLink did not want to provide the high-speed internet Bountiful needed, but also tried to block the city from doing so itself.
You love to see it. Do you have community Internet available where you live?
In México it’s kind of weird. We certainly have competition, but there are major leaders like: Telmex, izzi, Megacable and Totalplay. They are mostly mediocre, but they’ll try to outpace their competition every time they can. There are jobs just for advertisement where people move from sector to sector leaving pamphlets and trying to convince you to change your service. The problem is that they usually buy competitors to improve their infrastructure. For example, izzi bought part of Axtel, which to me was the best service provider in Nuevo León, so we moved to Totalplay the next month after the acquisition.
They always have offers and will offer you ‘better’ packages to convince you, sometimes matching the same price just so they gain a new customer (commissions are also an incentive for workers). Recently the government announced a new service provided by our federal energy commission (CFE) which aims to provide free internet in rural and public places and paid mobile data plans. More competition is always welcomed.
Gotta say that our Federal Telecommunications Office sometimes does its job and protects you against bad-faith movements like ISPs blocking you from moving and/or using other methods that are not approved, but no public services have a clean record. Still, at least here I’m seeing some progress.