<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 9:25 AM, Michael Mol <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mikemol@gmail.com">mikemol@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div><div></div><div class="h5">On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 1:14 PM, Bob Kline <<a href="mailto:bob.kline@gmail.com">bob.kline@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> <a href="http://blog.lafayetteprofiber.com/2009/06/nifty-new-intranet-speed-test.html" target="_blank">http://blog.lafayetteprofiber.com/2009/06/nifty-new-intranet-speed-test.html</a><br>
> Note the graphs. The LUSFiber system<br>
> delivers rock hard performance despite its<br>
> modest prices - $58 a month for 50 Mbps<br>
> full duplex. 100 Mbps available, also full<br>
> duplex.<br>
> Verizon and AT&T sued to try to stop the<br>
> project. Now, a precedent has been set,<br>
> and the bigger damage might be all the<br>
> attention LUSFiber is getting. It's now the<br>
> reference point for what's possible.<br>
> And what's possible is a whole lot cheaper<br>
> than the big players are suggesting. Comcast<br>
> just came out with a 100 Mbps down, 10 Mbps<br>
> up service tier, and it's over $400 a month.<br>
> Hardly full duplex, and definitely not cheap.<br>
> Yes, T1 lines were over $1,000 a month not<br>
> so many years ago. But technology has moved<br>
> on, and LUSFiber shows just how much.<br>
> For reference: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LUSFiber" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LUSFiber</a><br>
> -- Bob<br>
<br>
</div></div>How many people have paid for that system, versus how many people get<br>
service? In other words, who's subsidizing it so who else can use it<br>
cheaply?<br>
<br>
WP page says LUSFiber is municipally owned. Normally, things which are<br>
funded by government entities can be explicitly regulated by those<br>
entities, and have those regulations backed by their police force. If<br>
I have no reasonable alternative for a given service level than<br>
LUSFiber, that puts me at the mercy of their regulations. What if they<br>
decided they wanted a network-backed morality system like<br>
Australia?[1]<br>
<br>
It also says that LUSFiber is a subsidiary of a local utility company.<br>
Can you say "municipally-granted monopoly"? You can blame *that* for<br>
why Comcast is so large; Comcast is built on a coax infrastructure<br>
built by dozens of cable companies which had municipally-granted<br>
monopolies in their local area.<br>
<br>
The combination of municipally-granted monopolies and utility<br>
companies reminds me of a recent story in West Michigan where a guy<br>
was {fined|evicted|home condemned} (I don't recall which) because he<br>
wasn't attached to municipal utilities in his area. It wasn't that his<br>
home was unsanitary, unsafe, or polluting nearby areas, he just wasn't<br>
attached to the grid, law required that he be attached to the grid,<br>
and so he got in trouble.<br>
<br>
Also, do you know why T1 lines are so expensive? They're regulated.<br>
You get a kickass SLA to go along with that 1.544Mb/s connection, and<br>
someone will be woken in the middle of the night to repair it for you<br>
if it goes down. *That* costs. Even if he wasn't unionized, the guy<br>
you woke at 2AM because your T1 went down wouldn't charge unskilled<br>
labor rates.<br>
<br>
[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Australia" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Australia</a><br>
<br></blockquote><div>I have no good idea whether you're saying</div><div>the prices charged by AT&T, Comcast, etc.,</div><div>are reasonable or what. As for censorship</div><div>and other concerns, I haven't the slightest</div>
<div>idea what the situation is with LUSFiber. I</div><div>sure do know that Comcast has been fiddling </div><div>with people's connections. It might have </div><div>opened the new speed tiers only because</div><div>
of its acquisition of Disney, but at current</div><div>prices there might not be a lot of takers.</div><div><br></div><div>I know one couple that lives in Lafayette.</div><div>He is an IT guy. I got to talk to him off</div>
<div>and on for a few days when we were both</div><div>staying in Smithville, TX. He raised none</div><div>of the concerns you express. That's all I</div><div>really know. It seems to be the case that</div><div>$58 a month covers the cost, and I presume</div>
<div>the town folks would know if there is a </div><div>massive subsidy at work somewhere. And</div><div>further sure that Verizon, AT&T, and others,</div><div>would be quick to point that out.</div><div><br></div><div>
A fiber costs no more to install than a </div><div>twisted pair. To first order, all of the cost</div><div>is in the labor. </div><div><br></div><div>I the blog I sent a point to indicates</div><div>a lot of happy campers using the LUSFiber</div>
<div>service. If there are a lot of daemons and</div><div>smoke and mirrors involved, no one has </div><div>found them yet. I see no reason why the</div><div>price is not reasonable. Being a municipally</div><div>owned facility - someone or something has</div>
<div>to own the system - it's probably run on a</div><div>non profit basis.</div><div><br></div><div>Google hired one of the top people in</div><div>the LUSFiber system. Not sure whether</div><div>that says it wants to emulate the system,</div>
<div>or just wanted the manpower.</div><div><br></div><div>Anyway, what I know says LSUFiber is the</div><div>game to beat, and I know of no verifiable </div><div>downsides to the system. One could check</div><div>in to things like uptime. The blog refers to</div>
<div>measurements that say the performance is</div><div>everything it's said to be. I'll ask the person</div><div>I know about any byte limits, and see if he</div><div>has any other comments about the system.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Lafayette is a nice, medium size city:</div><div><br></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette,_Louisiana">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette,_Louisiana</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>Almost the kind of town where you could</div><div>know most other folks.</div><div><br></div><div> -- Bob</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><div><br></div><div> </div></div>
<br />--
<br />This message has been scanned for viruses and
<br />dangerous content by
<a href="http://www.mailscanner.info/"><b>MailScanner</b></a>, and is
<br />believed to be clean.