Jim,
This is my last response to you, because you seem to be doing what
many right-wing politicians are quite good at: changing the subject.
This shouldn't be a discussion about whether the municipal networks
are going to work or not. I dare-say that common sense tells us that
some number will be successful, and some number will not. How you
evaluate their outcomes relies almost entirely on your point of view.
The real, fundamental problem is that America has slow, expensive,
and only partially available broadband when compared to just about
every other industrialized nation. This is especially embarrassing
considering that we invented the damn technology, and nurtured it for
its first two decades.
This is a _fact_. No amount of hewing and hawing, or dancing around
the subject will change this.
Another fact: our sorry state of broadband has occurred over the past
5 years. A period of time when Conservative Republicans have been
running this country and calling (almost) all of the shots.
So, there arise really two questions (which you seem to be entirely
unable to answer and which is why, I suspect, you'd rather change the
subject):
1) Why is the state of broadband in America so awful?
and
2) What are you going to do about it?
This is less a question for you directly, but rather a question for
those in charge of this Country.
And the answer _isn't_ more competition in the future and a more open
marketplace with fewer regulations. THAT is an end result of good
policy-making. I want to know what we're doing that's failing, and
what we should be doing instead. If we put in place good policy, more
competition in a healthy marketplace will happen by itself.
And I'm not pro-muniwireless or anti-muniwireless, or left-wing or
right-wing, or even Republican or Democrat. I'm an independent.
Dana Spiegel
Executive Director
NYCwireless
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.NYCwireless.net
+1 917 402 0422
Read the Wireless Community blog: http://www.wirelesscommunity.info
On Jan 12, 2006, at 8:24 PM, Jim Henry wrote:
Dana,
I've read the article you reference, and, like the one I
provided a link
to, it is interesting. They make some good points. However, like
the PFF
paper, it's an advocacy document. I found no mention of municipalities
failing, or at least not doing as well, as commercial enterprises in
delivering critical services. There are certainly examples, such as
Philadelphia's PGW or NYC's water utility (nowhere near as bad as
PGW I'm
sure, but failing to meter water is still pretty bad). No mention of a
possible negative outcome from a municipal offering.
I am not too familiar with freepress.net but from checking their
web
site, even though they claim to be non-partisan the stories they
offer seem
to be coming from a leftist point of view.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Dana Spiegel
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 11:06 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [nycwireless] Governement run telecom and broadband
Jim,
Perhaps you should do a bit more research.
The PFF is well known to rely on half-truths and misrepresentations
of fact to support their anti-municipal agenda.
Free Press has released a white paper that provides the whole story,
and if you look at government broadband initiatives, they are
overwhelmingly cost saving and beneficial to local communities.
http://www.freepress.net/docs/mb_white_paper.pdf
Also, PFF's supporters include (and are primarily) every incumbent
telecom and cable company: http://www.pff.org/about/supporters.html
While this isn't a problem in and of itself, it should make you
wonder where their views and motivations are coming from.
Dana Spiegel
Executive Director
NYCwireless
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.NYCwireless.net
+1 917 402 0422
Read the Wireless Community blog: http://www.wirelesscommunity.info
On Jan 9, 2006, at 10:04 PM, Jim Henry wrote:
Here's an interesting study on government going into the telecom
business.
http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/pop11.3govtownership.pdf
Jim
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