>>Our commercial cable provider has fought this move bitterly. Yet we've
>>heard that they've decided that, rather than pull out of this market,
>>they'll upgrade their service and use Ashland as an experiment in learning
>>how to prevent loss of other markets like falling dominoes. This sounds
>>like healthy competition to me.
Kathy wrote:
>A problem that I see is this -- why should we have /two/ sets of
>fiber=optic cables running down one street - when just outside of the city
>limits, there are none?
Naturally there are arguments pro & con flying furiously. We used to live
just outside the city limits. Services provided by USWest there were
dismally poor and USWest had no plans to upgrade. Plans for Ashland Fiber
Network influenced our decision to move into Ashland.
The main difference (as I understand it and I could easily be wrong)
between what the city is planning and what TCI (the cable provider) is
putting in place is that the City will provide hookup directly to its T3
line for both up & downloading of files to the Internet in addition to TV.
While TCI has two or three corporate offices hooked up to the Internet, it
never, prior to the City's announcement of its plans, talked of offering
Internet services. Now TCI talks of Internet services, but glosses over the
fact that they'll provide only one-way (download) fast Internet
connections. Uploads will be normal -- which, for us, other graphic
designers, and companies like printers, is a problem, because we'd like to
be able to upload big print files.
At what point is the fiber-optic system a
>"government" infrastructure expense, like sewer, roads, etc. instead of a
>"private" enterprise (cable)?
Another question that's being debated at length. The main argument I can
make for it is that Ashland's unique approaches to finance -- its
electrical power system and its food & restaurant ("tourist") tax -- have
provided a quality of life here that's FAR superior to that of any town of
comparable size (17,000) that I've ever seen. In all fairness, I'll mention
that the electrical system isn't as dependable as most: there have been two
hours-long outages just in the three months I've lived here. I hope they do
better than that with the fiber network.
>This is the same problem with "electricity" delivery systems. The reason
>that there have been "regulated monopolies" in power distribution is so
>that we only had to have (ie, pay for) /one/ set of power lines running
>down (or under) streets. Now we are going to de-regulate power delivery -
>but who is going to maintain the lines? The last info I saw did not provide
>an oppty for the "owner" of the lines to charge "rent" for others to use
>the distribution system.
>
>So, should this infrastructure be "owned in common"? Or is everything going
>to be "wireless" and "satellite" in a few years anyway??? The AT&T/Airtouch
>program -- all the country is "local" on your cellphone -- is this a
>harbinger of things to come?
The City's lines power lines run on poles on the opposite side of our
street, and TCI's fiber line runs on poles on the near side. I have no idea
what the situation with ownership of the lines and/or is like.
One argument made against the AFN by one of the founders of the largest
local ISP is that it'll be out-of-date technology before installation is
finished. To the contrary, one could argue that technical innovations made
by companies like USWest and ATT are extremely slow to reach our corner of
the southern Oregon boonies. Everytime I see the latest technologies like
Sprint's discussed on WC, I say to myself, "that's great, but we'll never
see it here."
One small ISP has come out strongly in favor of AFN, one against, and the
other is staying out of the fray. The University hasn't shown much interest
even though they're portrayed as one of the largest potential consumers of
the AFN. The CEO of the company we worked for briefly this summer has been
involved with spearheading the project and is a potential corporate
customer. But if they don't pay their employees regularly and couldn't pass
MCI's credit requirements for a T1 line, I hope the City isn't relying too
heavily on them as a potential customer.
Carefully watching and listening to City Council members during the last
hearing, I derived the impression that they were divided into three camps.
1 (the largest) -- those who didn't, by a long shot, understand much at all
about the Internet or the technologies being discussed, but who just
thought it was majorly kewl and are in favor of anything that might attract
"family wage" low environmental-impact jobs to the area. 2 -- a couple of
guys who are financially very conservative and demanding close examination
of the budget. And 3 -- one old fart whose position on life in general
seems to be "agin it." He's said to represent conservative old timers who
were here before the California hippie liberals starting arriving in droves.
I think AFN *will* happen, but my intuitive hunch is that it'll end up
being used in ways nobody has ever thought of. The Oregon Shakespeare
Festival, for instance, is not at all technologically oriented right now,
yet with a change in mindset, they could use AFN to deliver performances or
theatre workshops to audiences anywhere.
Suz
Suzanne Stephens, Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon
541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/ ICQ #8190023
CyberCircus Grand Prize Winners http://www.thecybercircus.com/
Web Page Design for Designers Design Resources: http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdres.htm
Clip Art: http://www.freeimages.com/stephens/
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