John--thanks for the additional info about what's going down across the river. One comment: "While broadband isn't free, it isn't that expensive. I get time warner for $45 a month and used to get quest DSL for $40 to $45 depending on what ISP i used." I think that an AT&T or other communications executive had a similar quote in the paper awhile back. For upper middle class folks (like the exec), that's true, but for many others, it's certainly not. The value of $40-45 is in the eye of the beholder--for me (and I enjoy a lower middle class to working class budget) that price is cost prohibitive (I get my DSL service for $25/mo or so from Qwest as it is). Erin Stojan Dayton's Bluff
John Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > How happy I will be when Saint Paul gets wired! A few cafes in my > neighborhood offer wi-fi, but it will be a huge improvement to offer > this city-wide and available at home. Most of the internet services > I've scoped out are very expensive on a monthly basis, and/or require > year-long contracts or various other inconveniences. Even if the city > charged a nominal fee for this kind of access, it would be a huge > improvement over the options currently available. For those not reading the MPLS board, when this was discussed the price was $20 to $25 a month, i believe. The city of St Paul will most certainly charge for access. Since they will pull from a smaller client base, possible more than MPLS. this also means that if you connect to StPaul.net with your centrino mobile laptop, you will get cut off once you leave st paul, unless you find a free hotspot. > Of course, I'm sure Comcast and Qwest and others will start screaming > that "it's THEIR monopoly" and the city should not be allowed to > compete! Where's the free market when we need it? The city is putting out RFPs to avoid trouble with the contract already in place for the cable companies. At least that is how i intrepret that. The cities negotiated the monopoly which made some sense at the time since someone had to pay for the cities to be wired with cable. While broadband isn't free, it isn't that expensive. I get time warner for $45 a month and used to get quest DSL for $40 to $45 depending on what ISP i used. There are still questions of security and performance with city wide wireless. As with home wireless, if you are not close to a repeater, or signal base, you might not get very good reception. It is a good deal but not a slam dunk. John Harris camden, mpls ------------------------------------------------- JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------------- POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------ Erin Stojan Dayton's Bluff, Ward 7 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------- JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------------- POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
