local news
Internet
continued from page 1
innovations that have transformed commu-
nication and commerce,” Google said in a
statement. “We can’t wait to see what new
products and services will emerge as
Kansas City moves from traditional broad-
band to ultra-high-speed fiber optic connec-
tions.”
Past efforts to bring fast affordable broad-
band to Portland failed for economic rea-
sons. But in January, the city kicked off a
new broadband planning effort. Work
groups, which include business and industry
representatives are studying the prob-
lem and will issue a draft plan in
June. So what’s happening in other
cities?
Some cities own their own
networks
could Portland create a city-owned
and operated internet service?
It’s possible, but would be challenging,
says Mary Beth Henry, who is helping lead
Portland’s latest effort to bring high-speed
Internet to every business and home in the
city. Many of the cities that offer Internet,
already owned cable networks because they
owned electricity utilities.
“We already have a city-owned fiber sys-
Internet corporations have
successfully lobbied to ban
governments from creating
their own networks
About 130 cities across the country
have created municipal broadband
systems, where the city owns the
fiber cables and provide Internet
service as a utility, just like water or elec-
tricity. According to the nonprofit Institute
for Local Self-Reliance, more than 3 mil-
lion people get their Internet from local
governments such as: Independence, Ore.;
Wilson, NC; Tacoma, Wash., and Lafayette,
La., and Chattanooga, Tenn., which became
the first place in the country to offer internet
speeds as fast as those planned for Kansas
City.
Municipal networks have answered the
problem for some cities, but not without
opposition from for-profit providers. In four
states, Internet corporations have success-
fully lobbied to ban governments from cre-
ating their own networks. And barriers
make it difficult for governments to provide
service in 10 more states, including
Washington. Find the map online at the
New Rules Project.
tem that provides connections to schools,
libraries and some city buildings,” Henry
said. “That’s worked very well and has
saved the city a huge amount of money –we
don’t have to pay a private carrier.
“We do have plans to extend that to other
city buildings but not right now to commer-
cial and residential buildings.”
Where Do We Stand?
In downtown Portland, residents and busi-
nesses can choose between several compa-
nies which offer everything from wireless to
DSL and fiber cables. But both DSL and
wireless must be backed up by cables. And
while DSL used to be the gold standard, it’s
fast becoming as obsolete as dial-up.
That’s why one key issue is the high cost
of putting in the huge underground pipes,
fiber cables or utility poles needed to trans-
mit large amounts of electronic data. The
advantage for the corporations that already
own those pipes and poles is so great, that in
many parts of the country competing inter-
net providers have simply not bothered to
invest in new pipes. Instead they have sim-
ply divided up the territory, so each has a
monopoly in its own areas.
Susan Crawford, former broadband advi-
sor to the Obama administration and author
of The Big Squeeze, says these few giant
Internet providers exert a crushing power.
“If we’ve got a single monopoly provider
in each community of one pipe – the
pipe for high-speed wired access– and
wireless does not compete,” Crawford
told the Students for Free Culture
Conference in New York City Feb, 18.
“One guy with one pipe and every-
thing goes over it: culture, informa-
tion, news, our lives, anything we’re
creating, new businesses, all condi-
tioned on what these very few actors
(the ISP corporations) want to see for
our future. I think this is a big civil rights,
economic and industrial policy moment for
America.”
Portland does have some competition.
Several companies provide broadband in
the city. Still, just two –Comcast and Qwest
(fresh from a merger with CenturyLink)
–own the cable networks needed for the
fastest speeds.
“Century Link/Qwest says it covers 85
percent of the city,” Henry told The Skanner
News. “Comcast has 100 percent coverage.
So they do compete head to head. But for
that 15 percent who don’t have that it can be
a problem.”
Outside of the city center, what’s avail-
able is a hit or miss patchwork of coverage.
Fiber connections don’t reach every part of
the city. And the poorer and further out you
are, the fewer choices you have.
too Slow, too expensive and too
limited
According to the Your Voice report from
Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission,
companies are not delivering the internet
speeds consumers need.
“There is a significant need to increase the
capacity of residential internet access net-
works to provide higher connection
speeds,” the report says.
Lack of money is the most important bar-
rier to high-speed internet access. The Your
Voice study found that nearly half of every-
one from households with an income of less
than $30,000 a year say they can’t afford an
internet service. One in four Portlanders
simply don’t have internet access at home.
Many people don’t understand that a
speed of 1Gbps is a thousand times faster
than a speed of 1mbps, which is a thousand
times faster than 1kbps. So consumers rely
on information from internet providers. But
the packages are not easy to understand. If,
for example, you pay $69.99 for the “Air
Speed “ 512kbps service, you’re buying a
package that is 30 times slower than the
$69.95
Comcast
Blast.
Visit
CUBConnects.org online to compare serv-
ices in your zip code.
Meanwhile in Japan, New Zealand and
many other countries in Europe and Asia,
national governments are delivering better
services than exist today in the United
States. But in Washington DC, the battle
still rages for who will control the internet –
and profit from it.
heading to Battle
Recently, the House of Representatives
voted to repeal a Federal Communications
Commission ruling that stops service
providers from interfering with traffic on
their networks. President Obama has said he
will veto the legislation if it passes the
Senate
Big telecommunications companies and
content providers all want a piece of the
action. But net neutrality activists say that
without regulation, big Internet corpora-
tions – like Comcast or AT&T will push
their own content at the expense of com-
petitors, nonprofits and small independent
creators.
Free-market enthusiasts say competition
will solve the problem and deliver better
service. But activists, and even the Federal
Communications Commission – hardly a
hotbed of leftist activism – say that regula-
tion is needed to prevent abuses.
Bids/classifieds
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RENOVATION WORK TO
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Page 6 The Portland Skanner april 27, 2011
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4-27-11