[GRLUG] NOT LINUX - LUS

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Thu, 2011-02-17 at 14:25 +0000, Michael Mol wrote:
> > And what's possible is a whole lot cheaper
> > than the big players are suggesting. Comcast
> > just came out with a 100 Mbps down, 10 Mbps
> > up service tier, and it's over $400 a month.
> > Hardly full duplex, and definitely not cheap.
> > Yes, T1 lines were over $1,000 a month not
> > so many years ago.  But technology has moved
> > on, and LUSFiber shows just how much.
> > For reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LUSFiber
> >   -- Bob
> How many people have paid for that system, versus how many people get
> service? In other words, who's subsidizing it so who else can use it
> cheaply?

If you believe your connection from Verizon/AT&T/SBC/Comcast is not
subsidized then you are mistaken.

<personally>If I'm going to subsidize something I'd *MUCH* prefer it to
be subsidized as a public/municipal service than turning over money to
commercial entities who promise [almost always with no binding terms] to
do nice things (which is exactly what has happened multiple times with
AT&T and the like)</personally)

But I think it is clear that [regardless of the reasons why, sound or
not] the LUSFiber 'model' is a non-starter and going nowhere.  Thus,
while interesting, it is irrelevant.

> It also says that LUSFiber is a subsidiary of a local utility company.
> Can you say "municipally-granted monopoly"? You can blame *that* for
> why Comcast is so large; Comcast is built on a coax infrastructure
> built by dozens of cable companies which had municipally-granted
> monopolies in their local area.

Without which none of that coax infrastructure would exist in the first
place.

> The combination of municipally-granted monopolies and utility
> companies reminds me of a recent story in West Michigan where a guy
> was {fined|evicted|home condemned} (I don't recall which) because he
> wasn't attached to municipal utilities in his area. It wasn't that his
> home was unsanitary, unsafe, or polluting nearby areas, he just wasn't
> attached to the grid, law required that he be attached to the grid,
> and so he got in trouble.

I have no problem with this [given the lack of details].  Above a level
of population density it is virtually impossible to have a modern
dwelling [of reasonable cost] that is sanitary, safe, non-polluting,
*and* off-the-grid.  His waste water and excrement have to go somewhere.
I have zero problem with my local municipal authorities running these
people straight out of town.  There are sound reasons I can't raise pigs
in my 1/2 acre back yard two miles from downtown.

> Also, do you know why T1 lines are so expensive? They're regulated.
> You get a kickass SLA to go along with that 1.544Mb/s connection, and
> someone will be woken in the middle of the night to repair it for you
> if it goes down. *That* costs. Even if he wasn't unionized, the guy
> you woke at 2AM because your T1 went down wouldn't charge unskilled
> labor rates.

There are also technical issue beyond bandwidth: latency, for one.  I've
had a fair amount of experience with interactive [ssh/telent/etc...]
over DSL and other connections verses boring and poky old T1
connectivity.  The T1 very often feels faster.



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