On 11/7/17 10:37 AM, Adam Moffett wrote:
Most water systems are municipal. A handful of electric companies are
municipal. In principal there's no reason a municipal internet service
couldn't succeed.
I think municipal broadband hasn't often worked out because people
involved underestimate how difficult and/or expensive it's going to be.
We could think up plenty of sarcastic ways to say this, but I think
that's the root of the problem.
With water and electricity if the customer has a problem on their side
of the meter there's an entire industry of electricians and plumbers
that will fix it or make changes. Also, the customers generally accept
such as fact, and will call an electrician or plumber. And often the
plumber or electrician won't be able to come out the same day.
Now with internet service, customers generally seem to expect that their
ISP should handle everything end to end plus anything tangentially
related to the interwebz immediately.
~Seth
