Which Way To The Internet?
As my contribution today to “Focus on the Media” week, I'll point out a rather contentious point in media control:
Freepress.net is featuring efforts and policy proposals that allow municipalities to create what is known as “community internet”.
Several
communities in Iowa have offered, either through public solutions, or
shared public/private ventures: you can see a listing of some of
the efforts here.
What is of particular interest to Iowans is broadband internet access to rural communities and rural areas. The Rural Broadband Coalition notes the following:
America, which is home to nearly a quarter of the nation’s population,
comprises 75 percent of this nation’s landmass. Competition and active
participation in today’s vigorous new economy requires not only a
computer, but also high-speed, high-capacity (broadband) access to
information and data on the Internet. While the Internet is changing
the world economy, technology experts say, “large parts of rural
America are losing out on jobs, economic development and civic
participation” because of inadequate access to the Internet. Traversing
vast expanses of remote and often rugged topography presents unique
financial and technological barriers.
There are those that oppose
the notion that municipalites and communities should invest in
broadband internet capability, from the standard argument that the
private sector would be far better at providing said services.
The two
questions I have to pose in that regard: when did cable providers
finish putting in place the infrastructure for cable television in
rural areas?
(The answer: “They haven't, and were never that serious about it.”)
Will
internet access be a far more important tool for economic development
than cable television? If so, communities have the right to
invest in their future – just as they have the right to provide other
basic utilities in lieu of private sector competition.
Please share with us your success stories in using – or fighting for – community internet access below.
Blog For Iowa 
I don't know exactly how this fits into the whole arguement, but I lived in Huxley, IA two years ago, and really loved the co-op they had established to provide Cable, DSL, and phone service.
I recently moved to Nevada, and I can tell you that it was fun to see the 'benefits' of letting private industry provide the same services for me.
In Huxley, our bill was around $110 for 256k DSL, basic cable plus HBO, and standard local phone service. Besides price, I liked the service provided which had a very friendly feel. It was definately a 'local' company where people treated you well because they knew you lived right there with them. Since it was a co-op, we also recieved checks at the end of the year…I'm not sure what they were called but they were essentially profit shares, and it was nice to get a $30 check back from my communications company at the end of the year.
Now, when I moved to Nevada, I started to contact the companies to get my services set up. I contacted Mediacom (who has a cable monopoly here in town, and a lot of Iowa), and found out that for cable internet and cable television, I was looking at $100 for a basic rate, and more to add on any additional channels like HBO. In addition to that cost, I called Iowa Telecom and found out the cost was around $30 for a local phone line. Let's just say that I decided to skip a local phone and use my cell phone for all of my calls.
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