Hi everyone at Tek Syndicate. My grandfather is on the city council of a town outside of cleveland in Ohio. I was talking to him the other night about municipal fiber. He told me if I got some
a) talking points for older people
b) a plan to set the fiber up
c) any form of help setting the fiber up
d) things to tell the council that will benefit the city
he would propose it to the council.
I really want this to happen because it could eventually spread into the city and maybe all of northeastern Ohio.
How de-industrialised is the municipality, exactly ?
Bringing in high-quality network infrastructure that, as it seems from where we stand, could probably last us a century might help revitalise the local economy by drawing in start-ups that could have some use for it, specifically potential independent Internet Service Providers.
Moreover, how old are the people sitting on the current council ? It would help to get an idea of when they were in their prime in order to appeal to memories of past days, for example "It could be the next mining boom !"
Quite simply, an UN-restricted Internet will create jobs! And I'm sure Ohio, like the rest of the country, would like to attract some more tax paying citizens when there are jobs to fill.
The hard part will be with the installation of any fiber infrastructure, as in fiber to the subscriber or fiber to "the curb," since there are all kinds of laws, rules, and ordinances to consider. And don't expect your local ISP megaopoly Comcast / Time Warner to sit back and just take it either. Though you can point out how they took tax breaks to develop and improve service but then didn't (watch "The Tek" more if you need points on that one).
It's basic economics and good for voters/consumers when there is a healthy marketplace. And if access to the marketplace is maintained by a government instead of a corporation (which is really beholding to stock holders and perpetually bent on always making more and more profits) then TAXES instead of higher prices can be imposed too. If you can point out to any politician that he/she can raise taxes, like whatever tax that is imposed on a nice low priced Internet access service plan and still come out smelling like a hero, I can't see why they wouldn't jump at it.
But really. I'd focus on the jobs aspect to install and maintain this new infrastructure as well as how horrible the established (criminal ?) entity Comcast / Time Warner has already done. It's really impressive when you look at their horrible business plans with money double-dipping that will now include fast/slow lane BS. So there's no sense in throwing good money after bad when entities like Comcast/Time Warner take tax breaks, raise prices, and generally give a middle finger to their customers -- aka "voters". Ask almost anyone how they feel about Comcast and then give them an alternative. The politician who provided a better choice will be like a god!
thanks for the replies. The people are pretty old and conservative, but i think that if we get enough good talking points we can really get something started