First, I need to preference this is that I’m answering this in terms of the US and the issues are different elsewhere.

I’ve followed this issue over the years and there is a lot of mythology. The problem is the US is primarily political and economic. If the communities own their wires they could easily light up the copper to many megabits or gigabits per second. Unlike cities it is far easier to add wired and wireless capacity. The real costs are actually very low.

What is expensive is taking a 1950’s type approach to use the facilities.

The other twist in the US is the cockamamie idea that the distribution system has to be a profit center like railroad tracks rather than infrastructure like roads.

The other twist is that the 20 years of interesting using power lines goes back to the power companies thinking there is money in “Internet” so they want to use their wires which just happen to be copper – the same mineral that is used Ethernet thus they can make big bucks selling Internet alongside electricity. But if you read their whole pitch it becomes obvious that they are institutionally the worst choice. They make the phone and cable companies look agile.

So we get back to the simple idea of communities owning their facilities. If they have access to the poles and existing copper and the ability to invest in their own gear and take Internet native (http://rmf.vc/InternetNativePolicies) instead of use telecom pricing and policies the limitations would disappear rather quickly.

From: dc3-bounces@listas.altermundi.net [mailto:dc3-bounces@listas.altermundi.net] On Behalf Of Michael Oghia
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 07:08
To: DC on Community Connectivity (DC3) <dc3@listas.altermundi.net>
Subject: [DC3] Collaborating with local power companies

Hi everyone,

I just read this Interesting article: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/technology/how-to-give-rural-america-broadband-look-to-the-early-1900s.html

I know the idea of providing Internet via power lines is more or less a defunct idea (not due to technological constraints, but the lack of political will to invest in it to protect existing revenues). However, has anyone on this list ever thought about working with electricity companies, especially local power companies?

Best,

-Michael