[Davisgig] Fwd: A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband Company in America - Motherboard

[Robert Nickerson]

-------- 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https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvnx85/has-net-neutrality-been-repealed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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