From rob at omsoft.com  Fri Aug 17 09:59:52 2018
From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson)
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2018 09:59:52 -0700
Subject: [Davisgig] Fwd: A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband
 Company in America - Motherboard
In-Reply-To: <C2D70CCF-AFFD-44BD-8EC1-4FD78239224A@pacbell.net>
References: <C2D70CCF-AFFD-44BD-8EC1-4FD78239224A@pacbell.net>
Message-ID: <ddb3e258-1806-3ad8-a412-1228d9331f89@omsoft.com>




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband Company in 
America - Motherboard
Date: 	Wed, 15 Aug 2018 15:33:31 -0700
From: 	Eric Thompson <elt at pacbell.net>
To: 	Rob @omsoft.com <omrob at omsoft.com>, Steve McMahon <steve at dcn.org>



A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband Company in America - 
Motherboard
FYI Eric T.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne5k5m/consumer-reports-broadband-company-ratings


  A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband Company in America


    A Consumer Reports survey of 176,000 Americans finds that small,
    locally owned ISPs are routinely ranked higher than big telecom
    companies. By Karl Bode | Aug 14 2018, 7:00am

It?s no surprise that Americans generally hate their ISPs 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xmxza/america-hates-comcast-more-than-ever>. 
After all, companies like Comcast not only routinely abuse a lack of 
competition to drive up prices 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nz7wjw/why-comcasts-data-caps-arent-about-fairness>, 
but they often provide some of the worst customer service 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xmxza/america-hates-comcast-more-than-ever> 
in any industry in America. That?s when they?re not busy happily killing 
net neutrality 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvnx85/has-net-neutrality-been-repealed> 
or lobbying for the death of 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xy7xnk/republicans-are-about-to-nuke-the-fccs-broadband-privacy-rules> 
other meaningful consumer protections.

But in countless parts of the country, consumers are increasingly 
turning to community-run broadband networks as an alternative to this 
cavalcade of dysfunction. More than 750 communities 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3np4a/new-municipal-broadband-map> 
around the country have now either built their own broadband networks or 
built local cooperatives in a quest for better, cheaper service.

A new survey by /Consumer Reports/ 
<https://www.consumerreports.org/phone-tv-internet-bundles/people-still-dont-like-their-cable-companies-telecom-survey/> 
once again highlights how consumers are responding positively to this 
home-grown approach to better broadband.

The organization surveyed 176,000 /Consumer Reports/ readers on their 
experience with their pay TV and broadband providers, and found that the 
lion?s share of Americans remain completely disgusted with most large, 
incumbent operators. The full ratings are paywalled but available here 
<https://www.consumerreports.org/products/phone-tv-internet-bundles/ratings-overview/> 
to those with a Consumer Reports subscription.

All the usual suspects including Comcast, Charter (Spectrum), AT&T, 
Verizon, and Optimum once again fell toward the bottom of the barrel in 
terms of overall satisfaction, reliability, and value, largely mirroring 
similar studies from the American Customer Satisfaction Index 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xmxza/america-hates-comcast-more-than-ever>. 


One of the lone bright spots for broadband providers was Chattanooga?s 
EPB <https://epb.com/>, a city-owned and utility operated broadband 
provider we profiled several years back 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ezpk77/chattanooga-gigabit-fiber-network> 
as an example of community broadband done well. The outfit, which 
Comcast attempted unsuccessfully to sue into oblivion 
<https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/10gbps-internet-offered-by-city-fighting-anti-muni-broadband-laws/>, 
was the /only ISP included in the study that received positive ratings 
for value/.

?EPB was the top internet service provider in our telecom ratings two 
times in the past three years,? Christopher Raymond, electronics editor 
at /Consumer Reports/ told Motherboard.

?/Consumer Reports/ members have given it high marks for not only 
reliability and speed, but also overall value?and that's a rare 
distinction in an arena dominated by the major cable companies,? he said.

A major problem is that incumbent broadband providers have gone to great 
lengths to nickel and dime subscribers with a wide variety of spurious 
surcharges and bogus fees 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aekea4/all-in-internet-pricing-makes-more-sense-than-broadband-facts>. 
Regulators have historically been apathetic to this problem, which often 
involves making up entirely nonsensical fees 
<https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170424/10470637222/comcast-under-fire-using-bullshit-fees-to-covertly-raise-rates.shtml>, 
then hiding them below the line to pad the advertised rate post sale.

As a result, most broadband and cable TV subscribers often have no idea 
what they?ll pay until they actually receive their first bill. To that 
end, Consumer Reports has been waging a new campaign dubbed What the 
Fee!? <https://action.consumerreports.org/whatthefee> aimed at holding 
cable TV providers and ISPs accountable for what?s effectively false 
advertising.

Raymond told me most municipal broadband providers are often too small 
to include in the organization?s rankings. That said, other studies have 
supported the idea that municipal broadband providers are more likely to 
offer better, cheaper service free of obnoxious surcharges and 
quickly-evaporating promotional savings.

For example, a recent Harvard study 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d345pv/harvard-study-shows-why-big-telecom-is-terrified-of-community-run-broadband> 
found that community-owned broadband networks provide consumers with 
significantly lower rates than their private-sector counterparts. That?s 
often because these ISPs have a vested interest in the communities they 
serve that extends beyond extracting monopoly rents from captive 
subscribers.

?Almost all community-owned networks offered prices that were clear and 
unchanging, whereas private ISPs typically charged initial low 
promotional or 'teaser' rates that later sharply rose, usually after 12 
months,? the researchers said.

So why haven?t more towns and cities building their own broadband networks?

As EPB and other municipal providers have found out, ISPs are often 
quick to sue such operations 
<https://www.deseretnews.com/article/600138445/Qwest-is-suing-UTOPIA.html> 
in the hopes of putting them in a deep financial hole right out of the 
gate. More than 21 states have also passed protectionist laws 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkvn4x/the-21-laws-states-use-to-crush-broadband-competition>?often 
quite literally written by ISP lobbyists 
<https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150415/10482230664/alec-threatens-to-sue-critics-that-point-out-it-helps-keep-broadband-uncompetitive.shtml>?banning 
towns and cities from exploring the option.

That?s not to say that building your own broadband network will be an 
automatic success story. Municipal broadband is like any other business 
model, and depends entirely on the quality of those crafting them and 
the financing that?s available.

That said, the multi-decade effort by ISPs like AT&T, CenturyLink and 
Comcast to take the right of self-determination away from local 
communities only highlights how terrified incumbent ISPs are of these 
communities taking matters into their own hands.

Fortunately, efforts to roll back these protectionist laws have gained 
traction in states like Colorado 
<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zmzw5y/colorado-municipal-broadband-vote-2017>. 
And as Trump-era attacks on consumer protections like net neutrality 
gain steam, it only advertises how community-run broadband can be a 
faster, cheaper, and more transparent alternative to Comcast.

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From rob at omsoft.com  Wed Aug 29 16:38:27 2018
From: rob at omsoft.com (Robert Nickerson)
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2018 16:38:27 -0700
Subject: [Davisgig] Please write a letter to save Independent Internet
	Companies
Message-ID: <5548f993-9126-2a31-8503-32f918758780@omsoft.com>

Hi Folks,

This is not directly related to the Davis? fiber project, but since it 
affects fiber projects and investments? in other communities, I wanted 
to bring it to your attention. We are sending this out to as many people 
as we can. Please share liberally, as this is not being reported on in a 
major way.

Take Care

RAN


Greetings,

Just like everything else, the current deregulatory craze at the expense 
of common sense is about to hit the Internet Access Industry, and WE 
NEED YOU to take 5-10 minutes and write a letter at the website 
www.savecompetition.com

DEADLINE 9/4/2018

Here is the crisis.:

The US TELECOM ASSN, the trade group for the Mega Giant telecoms like 
Verizon, ATT and Centurylink have petitioned the FCC for forebearance 
from the COPPER line sharing requirements of the landmark 1996 
Telecommunications Act. They state that there is robust competition in 
local markets and great cheap fast Internet Access throughout the US. 
They request to end all regulated wholesale access to the Unbundled 
Network Elements (Copper Pairs) of the Telephone Network your 
grandparents, parents and you paid for through your taxes. California 
companies like Omsoft, SonicNet, CruzIO, LMI, Shasta.com, and Cal.Net, 
along with the remaining small ISPs across the nation will have their 
access to their main Internet Transport medium, the Public Switched 
Telephone System, (PSTN) completely shut off in 2 years.

All the investment, revenue growth, and job creation, the hundreds of 
millions of dollars of economic activity generated by these remaining 
3500 or so local and regional ISPs over the last 20 years is on the line 
here. Large or Small, we all rely on access to this network to provide 
ever better bandwidth products, and many leverage this revenue to build 
much needed Fiber Optic to the Home infrastructure that other large 
providers will not do, and the rest of the world HAS DONE.

You will be forced to work with only those companies that continually 
raise prices, sell your CPNI, scan and record your browsing data, and 
sell your history to advertisers. Your only choice for the wire line? 
Internet of the future will be two investor driven companies devoted to 
extracting as much profit from your INTERNET that they are able. The 
last check they had on competitive pricing, and best practices, the 
local ISP, will be wiped out.

Combined with the end of Net Neutrality legislation, this severely 
restricts a free, open and decentralized Internet in the United States.

Please take 5-10 minutes to let the FCC know you support More 
Competition in the Internet Access market, not Less. Newer technologies, 
and privacy protections are important to you to, and those are delivered 
by local community network type Internet Access operations.

Here is the link to write a letter:? www.savecompetition.com

Here is a good article:? https://goo.gl/8FiFgD

Here is an organization to support: www.incompas.org

Thanks for your time defending progress and local business,

Omsoft Staff



-- 
Robert Nickerson
UCD Class of 1996
CEO, Om Networks

cell: 5308483865
www.omsoft.com