14 Feb
2015
14 Feb
'15
1:56 p.m.
sincerely believe that connectivity is a human right as fundamental as
water, and we have companies like xfinity that have captured what should be
a public good D-:
Reminds me of Bechtel in Bolivia around 2000, privatizing potable water.
There have been several tries to set up Oakland as a municipal broadband
provider, running fiber rings to assure all of Oakland could have FTTH and
into all the commercial and industrial areas. None got far.
Had a hallway conversation with Oakland's CIO recently. He's working on a
plan for fiber for all City and OUSD facilities (offices, parks, schools).
The two biggest barriers seem to me to be money for the network (justified
through cost savings vs. current ISPs) and negotiating access to conduit
(mostly owned by companies and other government agencies like the County
and BART). At best, this intranet ring would serve the roughly 4000
Oaklanders who work for the City. So there's still a need for an access
plan. Mesh (share-your-connection) is a start. It's not enough.
The electricity distribution industry (think PG&E) drooled for years about
running data over powerlines or using their business relationships with
households and comprehensive right-of-ways to compete directly with the
AT&Ts and Comcasts. None have done so at scale in a US urban market. But
they might be an interesting ally/frenemy.
Sacramento has been a chokepoint. Twenty years' ago a city could extort
goodies like public access television stations from phone and cable
companies when permitting. Lobbying in Sacto killed that state-wide. So
some Oakland activism may need a vigorous Sacramento/statewide component.