Hosts: Steve Borsch, Graeme Thickins, Garrick Van Buren, Phil Wilson
Scattered geographically once again, the Gang comes together for another show where we chat about:
+ Our potential economic meltdown and what it means for internet and web startups and companies
+ What’s up with Best Buy? We chat about how this behemoth retailer has now suddenly burst onto the scene with a whole range of internet-centric initiatives (see Minnov8 posts here and here)
+ Tim O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 Expo keynote where he denigrates developers seemingly focused on trivial applications like throwing sheep
+ The “Unsummit” going on as an alternative for those unable to get in to the MIMA Summit (it’s sold out).
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I’m disappointed to hear you further the idea that we cannot compare US broadband to others because we have density issues that no one else does. This is inaccurate.
For one thing – if this were the case, we would expect our most dense cities to offer the best broadband connections and we do not. For another thing, many of the countries doing better than us are not as dense as Singapore, S. Korea, and Japan.
The difference is that they have not embraced a fully private-sector build out. The question is not whether our density disadvantages us – the question is what we will do about it. Will we just admit defeat in tomorrow’s economy?
The fastest, affordable broadband in the U.S. is available from community networks because they are investing for the community, not for shareholders.
Regarding the Mpls poles – the main problem is structural integrity. The radios are attached with metal bands that constrict around the cylinder of the pole. With the decorative poles, they would be crushed as the metal bands are tightened so they must be replaced with stronger poles.
Qwest is definitely not going to do fiber to the home- they are broke, except for finding money to do a huge, massively misleading advertising campaign that brags about their fiber network that cannot even offer 1 Mbps up. What a joke.
I’d beg to differ on geography being a relative non-issue. I’m no telecom apologist and, in fact, am upset with non-action. But when I’ve visited other countries where, like Tokyo, it’s comparatively cheap to cover humungous numbers of people with broadband, it’s not a fair comparison.
It’s a complex issue though and am glad youcommented. Are you involved or monitoring the MN Tas Force on broadband?
On the Mpls wifi: I did mention it was the pole at the issue (and that they’re being replaced in order to handle the gear).
Steve – I should say that our problems go far beyond geography. It would certainly be inaccurate to dismiss them. However, we can find solutions if we choose to make it a priority. In this county, over the same geography, we have already run 2 wires to nearly house.
If we continue to rely entirely on the private sector, geography also won’t matter because it does not have the capacity to solve this problem alone.
The problem with the geography argument is that our most dense areas cannot compare with Japan’s less dense areas. In fact, many of our more dense areas cannot compare with less dense areas in many European counties either – and that is a huge problem for us.
I am starting to monitor the Task Force and hope to help out if I can in any way.
On Mpls wi-fi, I just wanted to clear up that was not a wind issue or even load issue – just because I think your readers would find it fascinating how the poles are deficient.
I can be reached at christopher@ilsr.org if anyone wants to follow up.