Clearwire is teaming up with Comcast and Time Warner Cable and others---who purchased 25% of Clearwire---to offer Wimax wireless Internet access as a supplemental service to their cable customers. Clearwire advertises 4Mbs service at $30/mo. Customers may access their account from any city served by Clearwire. Read the full article here
As I researched municipal broadband over the past year, I noticed that most of the communities pursuing municipal broadband had already established municipal power. Apparently, their success with one led them naturally to pursue the other. There are significant potential efficiencies in pursuing both. The following quote captures the idea nicely:
I'm quite concerned about the future broadband playing field. To me, it's no longer a question of, "stay as we are, or go muni"; it is more like, "incur increasing nickel&diming, manipulation of service quality, restriction of use, and less privacy, or go muni". The situation is not static. This I think should be communicated more.
I was surprised to see Verizon outside my house, last week. They were installing fiber for FIOS service. I knew some suburbs were getting wired. But I didn't expect we would get wired for approximately another year. Whats more, I was told Syracuse is mostly wired up, already.
Thinking about how Verizon FIOS might affect the business and political landscape for a municipal broadband network, I posed myself the following questions:
