We have to be very careful about what problem we are solving. I’m very familiar with these broadband efforts and the people involved. These are old school models of broadband as a high speed connection to the web and generally are associated with business models that are require putting a paywall around the high cost infrastructure. In fact the very term “broadband” has become associated, as I explained in my talk at RightsCon, with a provider owning the facilities to sell their own services. All the terminology in these reports – last mile, back haul is traditional telecommunications service provider with the community as consumers not peers.
As I see it community-owned is a very different dynamic starting with local ownership that takes advantage of local opportunities including making use of existing facilities (copper, radios, trucks or whatever) and enabling people to work together locally and then at a larger scale. It starts at a very low cost and then builds as people appreciate the value in connectivity.
We need to be careful. WiFi and fiber are just technologies and not special. And the Internet is about more than the web. Vital services such as connected healthcare, environmental management and much more need free-to-use connectivity and do not require high speed. Is our goal more YouTube or more empowerment? We will get YouTube but there is no need to pay for premium for it before we get immediate benefit from simple free-to-use connectivity.
From: dc3-bounces@listas.altermundi.net [mailto:dc3-bounces@listas.altermundi.net] On Behalf Of Luca Belli
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 17:33
To: Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity <dc3@listas.altermundi.net>
Subject: [DC3] Reports on Municipal Fiber Networks and Broadband Public-Private Partnerships
Hi all,
Some food for thoughts below.
A very interesting report on the financial costs and benefits of municipal fiber network
http://www.sfbos.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=55324
and one on Broadband Public–Private Partnerships
https://www.benton.org/sites/default/files/partnerships.pdf
Best
Luca
| Luca Belli, PhD |
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