[Davisgig] Rob's Proposal

[Russell Neches]

I actually don't think the technical or financial details are especially
compelling arguments. That isn't to say that municipal broadband is not
cheaper, faster and technologically superior, or that it delivers better
service. The truly compelling argument is actually a moral argument.

Right now, consumer broadband networks are all controlled by companies
that are openly undermining our democratic institutions. They use their
power as monopolies to damage markets and destroy innovative new
companies. They are complicit with unconstitutional mass surveillance.
They have deliberately resisted deployment of modern technology because
they see artificial bandwidth scarcity as a profit center. Consumers
have warmer and friendlier feelings for the Internal Revenue Service
than for AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner.

These companies are bad actors.

There are real and significant disadvantages to public utilities.
However, the disadvantages are insignificant when set alongside the
caustic effect of tolerating monopolies in our communities. 

The single biggest advantage of a public utility is that your
relationship with it is subject to democratic institutions. Citizens can
set their complaints before the relevant commissions and the city
council, cast their ballots for candidates that want to address problems
they care about, or run for office themselves. These mechanisms of
redress are imperfect, but an imperfect mechanism is better than NO
MECHANISM WHATSOEVER.

Well, that isn't quite true. You can influence the broadband providers.
Simply buy a hundred billion dollars of their stock, and they'll take
your comments under advisement.


Russell

On Wed, 2015-01-07 at 01:08 -0800, Bill Broadley wrote:
> > From: Shneor Sherman <szsherm at yahoo.com> Sent: Monday, January 5,
> > 2015 11:27 PM To: Fei Li Subject: Re: [Davisgig] Rob's Proposal
> > 
> > I can currently stream HD 24/7 if I were so inclined.
> 
> What data plan do you have?  With who?  What is your monthly cap?
> 
> If I login to comcast it claims I used 225GB in Nov, 173GB in Dec, and
> 58GB so far (as of Jan 7th) in January.
> 
> Netflix claims 3GB an hour for HD.  24/7 * 3GB for a month would be over
> 2000GB a month... and that's assuming you don't upload stream it
> anywhere else with sling.
> 
> > I also have
> > sling included with my satellite subscription, and it's nice to be
> > able to stream that when I travel. But much as I like the idea of
> > gigabyte to the home, while quad density HDTVs are available, no one
> > is providing the service
> 
> Netflix and Amazon seem to have a fair bit of content.  Popular shows
> like Breaking bad, House of Cards.  Seems pretty popular with new series
> as well, alpha house, transparent, and orphan black.   Looks like dozens
> of different tv series, movies, etc.  I'm sure you could burn quite a
> bit of bandwidth watching them.  4k seems to be gaining popularity
> pretty quick.  Wasn't that long ago that a 40" 1080P tv was $400.
> 
> > and no one will until enough homes have
> > these currently very expensive models.
> 
> 39" 4k TVs's start under $400, not what I'd call "very expensive".  They
> will of course get cheaper and more popular over time.  I didn't spend
> $400 on my last TV, but many do.
> 
> > I understand your position as
> > a millenial, but you are a tiny minority of Davis homeowners. 
> 
> My 10 year old daughter would easily burn through 250GB given a roku or
> tablet and unlimited acces.
> 
> > It's
> > homeowners who are the majority in Davis, and until you can spell out
> > advangates of gigabyte internet, no one will pay much attention. So
> > what's the killer app or apps that will make it worthwhile? Also,
> 
> Replacing $75-$150 TV packages with 100s of channels of crap to get a
> few channels you like.  What's worse that cable/sat has a rigid schedule
> and you have to worry about what is playing when and on which channel or
> the hassle of managing a DVR ahead of time.  God forbid a sports game
> delays what you were trying to record.
> 
> My daughter is 10 years old and as far as I know has never seen a TV
> commercial.  She watches what she wants, when she wants to, with no
> forced commercials, previews, etc.
> 
> Currently we pay $7.50 or so to netflix for streaming, and $80 a year
> (last I checked, I think it got more expensive recently) for amazon prime.
> 
> Thus the rapidly gaining popularity of cord cutting.  Even HBO and
> Cinemax, Showtime, ESPN, CBS, Sling, dish, etc are now coming around to
> realizing people like streaming/cord cutting.
> 
> > what good is it if I can't afford the services? Rob's document talks
> > about 100 mbps to the home - that's one-tenth of the proposed
> > capacity. 
> 
> 100 mbit is plenty for common use cases, however if you actually use 100
> mbit comcast and/or AT&T will get rather unhappy with you and likely
> terminate your service and leave you no recourse.  At 100 mbit you hit
> the comcast cap in just over 4 hours.
> 
> > Who needs the rest? Again, what is this going to do for me?
> > Unlimited data sounds nice, but what does that mean in practice? I
> 
> Not having to carefully managing your bandwidth use.  Want to leave a
> video hangout going to you can watch your kid/cat/aquarium?  Want to
> backup that large music/video/photo connection?  How about watch more
> than 1 hour a day of 4k content on a $400 TV?
> 
> How about backing up one of the smaller disks you can buy today, a 1TB.
>  Do you want to wait 8 months with comcast using 125GB month so you
> still have half the data for other uses?
> 
> > can see, for example, that medically frail homebound individuals
> > might benefit from transmission of huge amounts of medical data, but
> > 10 mbps should easily manage that (if I trust the connection). Sorry
> > to be so pragmatic, hopefully someone out there has more ideas.
> 
> Medical data is pretty small these days compared to video streaming.
> I've seen grand parents consume a fair bit of data just doing a 1080P
> video conference regularly with grand kids.  With a bit of creativity
> you can even play board games.  My samsung TV came with a video cam +
> multiple directional antennas designed to let a living room of people
> interact with a living room of people elsewhere with bidirectional 1080P
> video and wide band (full duplex) audio.
> 
> Granted the most popular use I see is a 3 way video conference between
> my kid, family in Pennsylvania, and other family in Germany.  Typically
> for 1-3 hours on weekends depending on what's going on.  Kids love to
> show off artwork, paintings, drawings, lego buildings, even performances
> with pianos or violins.  I've been at more meetings where some people
> are there physically, some are just connected via laptop.  From anywhere
> from science meetings to singing happy birthday together.
> 
> Video hangouts have replaced most things I used to use phone calls for,
> kids, even toddlers love it.  Peek-a-boo isn't very fun to play over a
> phone ;-).
> 
> 
> 
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