Tuesday, April 15, 2014

How one town broadened its broadband.

It's no secret Jackson's bid to obtain C-Spire's new high-speed internet services was rejected by the company. The decision means Jacksonians must obtain internet service from either AT&T or Comcast. The speed of AT&T leaves something to be desired and well, let's face it, not everyone is enthralled with Comcast. A situation faced by more than a few cities. Lafayette, Louisiana took care of the problem itself. Lafayette built its own fiber-optic network. Will it be a waste of money or a good return on investment? Time will tell. USA Today reported two years ago:

In this tradition-rich city known for its crawfish etouffee and Zydeco stomps, high-speed Internet rules. Web videos upload in a few quick seconds. Surgeons review online pathology reports from their living rooms. University students share bulky research files with one another electronically at lightning speeds.

More than 800 miles of fiber-optic cable hum invisibly underground in Lafayette, a city of 120,000, delivering Internet speeds of up to 100 megabits per second — rare for even major cities. The cutting-edge connectivity in the heart of Cajun country is due not to a private telecom giant but to a public municipal service that offers higher speeds and often lower rates than the private sector.

It hasn't come without a fight. From the time the cyber network was just a far-fetched concept, the city's two main private providers, Cox Communications and BellSouth (now AT&T), have fought the initiative every step of the way — from an information campaign against the project to civil lawsuits...

The battle over broadband in Lafayette is part of a growing number of clashes across the USA that pit municipalities against telecom firms for the right to deliver Web access to homes and businesses. More than 150 local governments across the country have built or are planning to build cyber networks, says Christopher Mitchell of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a non-profit group that advocates community development and local access to technology. Mitchell says those efforts often draw opposition in the form of misinformation campaigns, lawsuits from private providers or unfavorable state laws resulting from telecom lobbying. Nineteen states either ban cities and counties from getting into the broadband business — or make it difficult.

As the Obama administration advocates greater broadband connectivity across the USA, communities vying to build the networks are being fought by state legislators backed by telecom companies or the companies themselves. At the core of the debate is whether local governments should be getting into the costly and at times risky business of providing Internet service and whether public financing and other options give cities an unfair advantage over private companies. Telecom companies often pay "franchise fees" to cities for the right to sell cable TV programming, a tool the cities can leverage against companies, telecom officials say.

Once a broadband leader, the USA has slipped to 15th in a poll by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that ranks countries according to the percentage of households and businesses using broadband, falling behind Finland, France, Canada and other countries. The USA's "duopoly problem" — 96% of households have access to two or fewer broadband service providers — has contributed to the slide in ranking, according to the Federal Communications Commission. In its National Broadband Plan, the FCC urges Congress to clarify federal rules allowing state and local governments to provide broadband service. ......

Lafayette headed toward cyber connectivity more than a decade ago, when it laid 65 miles of fiber optics to bring better Internet connection to its city-owned power company, Huval says. Businessmen approached the city about expanding the network throughout Lafayette as a way of drawing businesses, he says. City leaders asked BellSouth and Cox representatives to partner on the project - but they declined, Lafayette Parish President Joey Durel says. So city leaders decided to do it themselves

"They needed a much quicker return on their investment for their stockholders," Durel says. "That wasn't our mission. Our mission was to serve our community."

In 2005, voters passed a referendum with 62% of the vote to invest $125 million in city funds to bring fiber-optic connections to every home and business, Huval says. BellSouth and some residents filed lawsuits against the city, claiming it had an unfair advantage over private companies because it had access to city funds. The challenge reached the state Supreme Court, which ruled in 2007 in favor of the city, Huval says.

Today, Lafayette's system is drawing attention from the tech world. California-based visual effects house Pixel Magic opened a studio in Lafayette two years ago, partly based on the Internet connectivity, and more tech companies continue moving in, Huval says. "We've built the infrastructure of the future," he says.

Scott Eric Olivier moved his tech startup firm, Skyscraper Holding, from Los Angeles to Lafayette when he heard of the speeds and service offered by LUS Fiber. The same connectivity of 100 megabytes per second, which allows him to move large files across the Web for clients, would cost him several thousand dollars a month on the West Coast, he says. In Lafayette, he pays $200 a month. Another plus: He's getting what he paid for — exactly 100 megabytes per second — while his previous provider rarely delivered the promised speeds, Olivier says.

"The fact that these guys were able to build this and go to war with the larger telecommunication companies is very impressive," says Olivier, a Lafayette native. "Their advertised speed is actually what you get. I don't know any other provider in the United States that can do that."

For Stephen Abshire, founding partner of the Gastroenterology Clinic of Acadiana, the city's fiber upgrade allowed him and his partners to finally make the switch to a fully electronic clinic. Health records, billing, pathology reports and endoscopy readouts are all reviewed digitally, he says.

The high speeds and secure connections between his home and office allow him to review patient records at home and have online conferences between doctors and nurses in different parts of the city — feats impossible without the fiber-optic network.

"Everything is paperless at this point," Abshire says. "The only paper we have are consent forms."...

LUS Fiber has captured nearly one-third of the city's 45,000 residential and business subscribers, and more are steadily joining each month, Huval says. To compete, Cox has slashed its rates for some residents and business customers, lowering TV and Internet bills across the city, he says.

Questions linger as to whether LUS Fiber can be a solvent business and pay for its expensive day-to-day costs. Huval says the draw of new companies to the city and the connectivity of schools, libraries and every home in the city already make the venture more valuable than its price tag.

"It's given Lafayette a true edge," Huval says. "Other communities around the country 20 years from now will want what Lafayette has today." Article

If you want to go geek, here are two opposing stories on the question of U.S. v. Europe broadband service.

BBC: US has much higher rates for the slower speeds
Forbes says US offers higher speeds and better service

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea. Jackson can't afford it.

Johnny Weir said...

Good for Lafayette. This should be a good selling point to bring business to Lafayette. Comcast is poorly serving Jackson. They advertise up to 102 Mbps speed which is a boldface lie. I go to Speedtest.net and my average speed is 30 Mbps Download & 5 Mbps Upload. Judge for yourself if what Comcast advertise is true or not. Jackson can’t manage it infrastructure now much less deal with a fiber Optic network.

Hookah said...

With the caps on data usage by AT&T and Comcast the days of the internet we once used are over.

Unless you like to pay the exuberant overages.

If you were using the interwebs for things like Netflix, Xbox, Amazon video, P2P etc...these ISPs are making us pay dearly.

I hit 300GB in 9 days casually using Netflix and Xbox Live.

This is convenient considering billions in federal tax dollars went to building and modernizing our network here in the good ole U.S.

It's only gong to get worse with the merger of Time Warner/Comcast and the only person who seems to be fighting this on The Hill is comedian Al Franken.

If the merger is allowed to go forward the Public Service Commission should push to regulate these telecommunication Goliaths.

This already feels like AOL minute plans of the late 90s.

Google Fiber save us.

Anonymous said...

You are using 30+Gbs a day? You are damn right, I shouldn't have to subsidize your usage.

Anonymous said...

You need to read the fine print Johnny. The speeds are never guaranteed.

Johnny Weir said...

10:57 AM... The speed of 102 Mbps is never, never, never ever realized by anyone. I'm paying $ 140.00 a month for just cable TV & Internet. I'm not being well served. In fact I'm being fleeced!

Anonymous said...

C-Spire went where local governments would work with them, just like Google. But C-Spire is doing it in more cities. Soon, Mississippi will have more fiber cities than any other state. I've registered and can't wait to dump Uverse.

Anonymous said...

Even worse, Comcast and ATT don't provide high speed internet to parts of downtown Jackson. You're offered DSL at 1.5 Mbps.

Chattanooga also built out their network.
http://chattanoogagig.com/

Anonymous said...

Why aren't you conservatives yelling about the government taking away business from private industry??

It's funny how your values change when it hits your pocketbook, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

I have AT&T internet service and it's spotty and slow. To make it worse, I have Comcast TV cable that malfunctions on weekly basis. I pay around $250.00 a month for both ($3000.00 per year) Even though the people that I spend an enormous amount of time with each week trying to keep the junk running do seem to try, it NEVER stays fixed. Isn't there just ONE thing that the clods running this city can get right? Just one?

Johnny Weir said...


10:57 102 Mbps will never, never, never be realized by anyone. And for the amount I pay for Cable TV & Internet I should see speeds at 300 Mbps.
Here’s my bill.
HD Preferred XF $126.00
Additional Outlet Digital Adapter x 3 $5.97
Modem Rental Fee $8.00
Reg Recovery . 01
Tax Surcharge Fees $12.00
Total $ 151.97
FYI –My cable modem is a old modem running Dociss 2.0. old & slow.Comcast never tells you newer cable modem run at Dociss 3.0 Faster. Comcast will replace (for free) your older modem to a newer Dociss 3.0 modem.
Bloggers check what type of modem you have and upgrade for free. Don’t pay for old slow.

Hookah said...

Purchase your own hardware...Comcast is pushing the Arris TG862g for Xfinity Internet it has been very buggy and incompatible for me.

I finally broke out a 200ft Ethernet cable and shoved it up my Xbox's ass.

Try and disconnect now you machine.


Kingfish said...

Bought the Asus Dark Knight recently. Installed it perfectly. Damn thing won't work as it connects to my AT&T modem/router fine but then no signal whatsoever comes from that ancient piece of Netgear through the ethernet cable. Its connected to it, registers it, but no actual internet. Now have to go get an actual modem to hook up to the Dark Knight.

Anonymous said...

First Johnny. Stop renting the damn modem and save yourself the $8 plus monthly tax. Then if you really want to save get DirecTV. They dicker and their customer service is far superior to the Comcast bozos. The picture quality is also better as the physical plant Comcast uses in Jackson is damn old. Plus, when you disconnect TV services via Comcast but keep the Internet piece you stop paying those stupid taxes.

Anonymous said...

If you are on the Jackson Comcast plant 12:10 PM don't waste your time trying to get their digital TV to work. It never will.

Anonymous said...

I rarely have problems with my Comcast TV. The internet goes down about once a week just for a bit.

Anonymous said...

I have "screen freeze" almost every time that I try to jump from on demand and back. Comcast is a second rate service.

Anonymous said...

Comcast came out and put in a new box, and the problems I'd had with screen freezing and On Demand went away. I don't have problems with my TV service anymore.

Anonymous said...

"I have "screen freeze" almost every time that I try to jump from on demand and back. Comcast is a second rate service. "

Their "On Demand" service is amateurish. When I go through the categories to review listings I find I cannot go back (there is no "back" arrow) so I have to go back out to the numbered channels, then hit "menu" again to get back into the On Demand selections from the beginning.

But the most annoying thing is they sometimes chop off the last five minutes of a show (i.e., when you find out who the real killer is) so they can run a five minute vanity interview show starring the wife of the former CEO (mother of the current CEO). Useless.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Consumerist:
the Consumerist rated Comcast the worst company in America, beating out agricultural giant Monsanto by three percentage points.

Comcast: "it bothers us that everyone hates our customer service

Anonymous said...

As if Red's, Poupart's, and Festival International were not enough, ANOTHER REASON TO MOVE TO LAFAYETTE.

Anonymous said...

The insanely fast WiFi router you’ll probably never need

The average American household connects to the Internet at a rate of 10 megabits per second. Not bad, but also not fantastic — by way of comparison, a single HD Netflix stream takes up 5.8 Mbps of bandwidth. Now with that as our baseline, consider the speeds of the country's fastest Internet connections today: 1 Gbps, or a gigabit per second. That's equivalent to 1,000 Mbps, or roughly 100 times faster than the national average

Anonymous said...

I have had Comcast (Time Warner) since I moved here in 1996. Knowing that broadband was soon to be coming I made sure my house was properly wired to handle it. The only time I have lost connection is when there is an area wide outage, such as during a storm. RG59 cable, multiple splitters, worn connectors etc... will all cause noise on the return path. That is most likely the problem most of you that are having dropped signal need to correct. That being said, I will be one of the first to connect to CSpire's fiber. Yes, I will have to upgrade everything in the house, but that is the only way to get any technology to work correctly, no matter how old school it might be. As much as I dislike Comcast and their monopoly they are seldom the problem...it is usually an ID 10 T error.

Anonymous said...

@8:36

I see what you did there...

Anonymous said...

I know the guys at LUS, (I sold them their upstream IP connection while at Level 3). They saw an opportunity years ago and acted on it. The "big boys" didn't want to provide broadband to Lafayette, (I believe this was in the late 90's). Anyway, LUS stayed the course and now provides enhanced services in the Lafayette at a competitive price and the other guys cannot stand it. They, (the "big boys") had their chance and hesitated and now they are complaining.

Jackson had the chance to do this years ago and as I understand it does have fiber access for city use at the expense of others that use the city owned right of ways.

Anonymous said...

I dumped Comcast for Direct TV and ATT for my wifi.

I no longer have had to spend hours of my life on hold or in line returning defective gear.

The merger is a horror. " He who controls the flow of information, controls power" and we already know Comcast won't be benevolent.

Anonymous said...

Johnny,
You have to pay for the 100Mbps plan to get those speeds. It looks like you are a Triple Play plan and that will include the 25/5 internet package. Next up is a 50/10 plan for ~$10 more per month.

I am in no advocating Comcast. I have a CableCard and it is terrible anytime I have to call Comcast related to it. Everyone I know with Comcast has pixelated and blotchy HD programming on regular occasions. They are a monopoly... NBC owns Comcast and produces the content. Comcast delivers it via cable. If you cut the cord you and wish to stream, you still need them to get good speeds from Netflix from their internet service

Hookah said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v6AY7VD1Zs

Anonymous said...

Lafayette was ahead of the curve on this one. While the city is not necessarily a technology or financial mecca, it's arguably the "Palo Alto" for Gulf offshore oil/energy operations...and probably is only surpassed by Houston.

But Lafayette definitely has the right idea. If Jackson is going to grow at all, it must grow jobs - high quality/highly skilled jobs.

For example, consider a company developing a relatively new/growing technology in RFID chips. The company is based on the West Coast and is considering expanding its operations in the Southeast. Currently, it’s looking at Birmingham and Jackson for a regional HQ location. Sure, Birmingham looks a little better on paper…but if Jackson had better technology infrastructure, it would be a no-brainer for a tech company.

Everything starts from there – unemployment starts improving -> tax revenues increase -> more infrastructure and amenities begin to develop -> THEN more companies see this and expand to Jackson, and the cycle continues. And then, before you know it…Southwest Airlines is knocking back on the door trying to get a spot in the airport :).

I know, Jackson’s got bigger problems (crime, existing infrastructure, politics, etc…), and not saying something like this wouldn’t take time, because it’d probably be towards the better half of a decade before any real/measurable gains are seen…but it’s not impossible.

The above may or may not have made any sense. I haven’t slept in a while, and I tend to ramble. But one thing’s for sure – I do love Jackson, and I really hate to see it decline the way it has. Downtown Partners has been wonderful, but you can sense the developments being stifled over the past couple of years.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Jackson and any town or city needs to do this in order to be current. If a city doesn't have the infrastructure they will simply not grow. ATT and Comcast or not the answer. Jackson could pull this off if someone had a clue, but it seems they all want to know "what am I gonna get out of this?". Until that changes Jackson will not grow.

Break For Radio Check said...

Lou Moomba had this on front burner.

Ben's Crowd will look at it right after One Lake, in twelve years.

Not to worry.



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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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