istayquiet t1_j64nqnp wrote on January 27, 2023 at 6:07 PM

Reply to comment by Xanny in BGE is quietly pushing to control Baltimore’s underground conduit system by finsterallen

Funding a municipal fiber network probably shouldn’t be the goal. Incentivizing market entry for more providers would likely result in the same outcome for customers with very little stress to the city.

Example: Baltimore received $35m in ARPA funding earmarked for Digital Equity initiatives. So far, they’re looking at using these funds to connect rec centers to the city’s fiber ring and to deploy public Wi-Fi zones (which, let’s be honest- how useful will public Wi-Fi actually be?). To date, there’s been nothing earmarked for home broadband service. In addition, unlike almost every other municipality in Maryland, Baltimore does not have a fiber leasing program, so building fiber assets for the city will not result in increased connectivity to residential customers.

If Baltimore used some of this federal funding to establish something like a Conduit Fee Rebate Program through which qualified ISPs could more affordably build infrastructure in the conduit system in order to serve a set number of under-connected neighborhoods/households, they would essentially be unlocking restricted funding and paying themselves while encouraging a broader number of ISPs to deliver residential service.

The complete lack of competition in the internet market in Baltimore is a huge reason available service is so shitty.

Xanny t1_j65numm wrote on January 27, 2023 at 9:56 PM

> Incentivizing market entry for more providers would likely result in the same outcome for customers with very little stress to the city.

Lol, ISPs are the most hated companies in the country. Its infrastructure capture to give a private corporation exclusivity in your conduits, cough cough Comcast. No, hell no. If the city wants to lay fiber, it should be our fiber, publicly owned, and the only private entity should be the backbone connection. The city does our water and our trash, it can do our Internet. Like, sometimes city services suck, but do you know what suck way more? Private water and trash cos literally everywhere.

The city could always get a... leasing program, rather than ya know, giving away infrastructure to private corporations again, when that always goes so well every time it happens.

The government being shit isn't made better by giving away the city to private companies to also run like shit. You really can't get out of fixing a shit government if you want anything to get better.