Comments on: bottom-up broadband

By: WiMax opponent

WiMax opponent — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:38:06 +0000

Why does every effort to explain how telcos are fleecing the public result in an anonymous post about the benefits of WiMax? The fact is that many analysts have labeled WiMax as a highly problematic technology that puts the telcos back on high ground. It will 1) enable them to use cell towers, 2) it requires a portion of private bandwidth and would allow telcos to leverage their monopoly on these frequencies. Sasha Meinrath is the worlds leading expert on the problems of WiMax( and the advantages of Mesh ). If you are a municipality: DO NOT USE WiMax!

A Thread by Sascha

By: extenze

extenze — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 21:58:41 +0000

This comment is directed toward another comment by bruce.

Bruce, I too believe in free markets. Unfortuantely, there has never been, nor will there ever be a free market. Governments and people always seek out ways and enact laws to protect those who have political might. Please show me one example of a truly free market.

It all comes down to how corrupt a government is.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 21:32:57 +0000

It is great that the people of Lafayette will get fiber access to the internet. However, I would investigate the pending 802.22 specification for WiMax access instead. It will be a lot less expensive for them to push for this instead.

BTW, I am surprised that the Telcos aren't pushing WiMax at a cheap price as an alternative.

By: Charlemagne

Charlemagne — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 18:31:52 +0000

More EU Patent Problems
Oh BTW- if you are one of the stupid clods who thinks that Live 8 is going to buy Bill Gates forgiveness, fuck you and your stupid boss. Microsoft is responsible for this heavy lobbying in Europe. If bill gates really wants to help, try stopping the constant barrage of IP litigation preventing African AIDS victims from obtaining life saving drugs. Fuck you Bill Gates, your business is not welcome in America- we will cut you loose as soon as we can. As long as the EU continues along this route, it will be a socialized nightmare for years to come- for most of the lives of young Europeans today. This includes you lower class British- you M$ dragoons that have been posting here may you be damned to hell- you are traitors to your own people. I suggest you buy real estate in India while it is still affordable. Young Europeans, those people who are complaining about these laws are looking out for you, listen to them and support them! Do you want all opinion and consent created in a machine that the public does not even own the rights to? Welcome to the 21st century.

By: gary gnu

gary gnu — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 13:14:14 +0000

Yes the 'buy the well, not the water' strategy is the best, but most telcos are not willing to go that route...

By: Antoin O Lachtnain

Antoin O Lachtnain — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 08:19:26 +0000

Well, why doesn't the city just build a ducting system and let the private sector put the fiber into it, at a yearly rental?

By: a

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 20:22:45 +0000

In addition to the advisory, the FDA also updated its Web site with a notice about a higher-than-expected rate of suicide attempts in research with the nation's newest antidepressant, Eli Lilly's Cymbalta. Those studies were in women trying Cymbalta as an incontinence treatment; it was never approved for that use. The FDA insisted when it approved Cymbalta last year that studies of depressed patients showed no suicide link. These are people not monkeys. Who is responsible??????

By: 2010: Poverty Elimination

2010: Poverty Elimination — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 10:00:15 +0000

What do you think about Live 8?

By: Fred Meyer III

Fred Meyer III — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:37:55 +0000

I fully support the return to a copyright law that supports the commons. In fact I find Lessig to be a little to conservative.

Concerning Lafayette LA, I fully support the referendum. There is no reason that governments should not compete with enterprise when they are more efficient. The voters of Lafayette will stop voting for expansion of the the local fiber optic service when it becomes too costly.

By the way, I take offense with the misuse of the word "theory". In science, theory is generally a consistant explanation of a situation that has been verified by experimental results. Instead of "theoryland" please use "conjectureland". Those who claim to be supported by theory have not shown that their ideas are consistant.

By: Douglas Menefee

Douglas Menefee — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 00:12:38 +0000

I'm a Lafayette resident. We have been working on this plan for many years. The state of Louisiana has made a turn when it comes to broadband and the high-tech environment.

Louisiana's wealth of Healthcare and Oil and Gas companies make it a prime breeding ground for the development of killer apps requiring broadband. More and more businesses are turning toward "true telecommuting" - not just with a web browser - but the current providers don't feel that end users need to be "publishers" the incumbant networks are too limiting... they refuse to upgrade to stay comptetive in the global digital economy.

Lafayette's current leadership comes from private industry and struggled with government vs. private industry... but then private industry (Cox / Bellsouth) told the community that FTTH is unnecessary and they they will never do it. They have gone so far as to say that Verizon will fail because of its deployment.

The reality is that we are a community of 100,000... there are hundreds of communities like us competing for new businesses. Businesses today are looking for affordable electricity, affordable bandwidth, knowledge workers, and low business taxes. We already have 3 of the four and are working on the biz tax issue. LUS' whole sale model has enabled businesses like the one that I work for get 10Mbit fiber service for around $800 a month.

Our office in Dallas pays more than that just for a T-1 line. Getting fiber in Dallas has proven to be a near impossible task b/c of ROI. In Lafayette I have 3 companies knocking on my door with Fiber. Though bellsouth sells a pseudo-fiber connection (much like their fiber to the curb proposal).

The fact of the matter is - BANDWIDTH is an infrastructure issue. I'll repeat my mantra - I don't care who builds it ... as long as it works and its affordable!