Erie County exploring idea of municipal broadband

[WNYresident]

Erie County exploring idea of municipal broadband

A cheaper alternative may be on the way to the broadband internet services currently available in Erie County. The Legislature is going to explore the possibility of starting its own county-wide network.
Lawmakers recently gave the go-ahead to the Legislature's Economic Development Committee to take steps towards setting up a municipal broadband system.
Legislator Patrick Burke sponsored the resolution and says customers of the big name providers are paying a premium price for a low-end product.

http://news.wbfo.org/post/erie-count...R2F3o.facebook

[WNYresident]

So the County wants to compete with the private sector providing cable service? Don't you think that is crossing the line?

[FMD]

Well the cost for broadband is expensive, it is only natural for the Govt to want to get in on all those juicy profits.

[NY The Vampire State]

When has Government Inc. ever made anything cheaper?

[WNYresident]

Comments from wbfo

Susan • 2 hours ago

This is long overdue. Online communication and information seeking is a public good that should be provided at cost by our elected officials. This would address the problem of people who cannot afford cable or satelite, and who get their information through costly cell phone charges.

I live in Chautauqua County and will be forwarding this article to my county officials.

When does it ever stop? Nothing is "provided" by any elected official. Elected officials force others to pay through taxes. Currently Time Warner is down to $15 for cable plus 5 I think to rent a cable modem. Let's say with taxes 25 a month.

BBND-MTRS • an hour ago

To wnyresident - Because the market has failed. It's not responding to the needs of the consumers. Also because access to broadband is as essential now as electricity and water to your family's future health & welfare.

And government hasn't failed? I don't consider broadband an essential compared to electricity or water. You can say a "car" is essential to a family's future health and welfare. Without a car you can not drive to work, the doctor or drop your kids off at school. I wonder if they believe we should provide cars, insurance and gas money.

The problem isn't helping people, the problem is what is the limit of what is spent.

Instead of providing it for free how about removing all taxes associated with broadband access? I don't have a cable bill in front of me. Does anyone know what fees/taxes are charged on a basic internet package provided by Timewarner or Verizon?

[sharky]

gov't run ISP. It'll make the NSA's spying program even easier to implement

[FMD]

Yes.

The fees and surcharges outside the modem rental fee is like $3. thats for both Verizon and TW.

The biggest problem here is the monopoly of services. Bother Verizon, and TW got together and set their prices to coincide with each other. So both companies are charging about the same.

Lack of competition has created higher prices. Its like the ComCast/TW merger deal (havent been following - did that actually go through?)

The other big issue are these companies are also not making the market very favorable to any sort of competition. Take for instance my business land line, the telephone line is own by Verzon, yet my phone service is provided by Qtell.

Now, Qtell charges me $30 a month for the business line, that same service under Verizon would be much more expensive... Plus as an added bonus, when you call Qtell you talk to a human with in 3 minutes - literally... Verizon, its usually 10 minutes just to get through the phone system...

but heres the thing... I had residential DSL, through verzion. Mind you verizon owns the phone lines.... Yet because my business phone service was thruogh Qtell, they charged me and extra $5 a month.

Go figure.