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4G around the globe: Spain has the fastest LTE speeds, the U.S. has among the slowest


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I'm trying to fix the problem here, not the blame.

You skewed this thread into ISPs when you started talking about "munis" and fiber back on page 1. Since it was your thread to begin with I didn't think continuing in that vein would be hijacking.

 

As far as "utilities" go, I have no idea where to start. For a guy who said he would straighten me out about how utilities work you seem to fundamentally misunderstand the system.

 

I guess I'll start by saying that not all utilities are publicly traded; as you seem to think.

 

And your use of "muni" or "municipality" when you speak of utilities is confusing. If your word "muni" stands for "municipality" then those are public agencies supported by tax money. A municipality is typically an incorporated city or town but they can be other things.

 

But one thing municipalities are not is a for-profit utility company.

 

Many of the power utility providers in the US are municipalities. For instance, Public Utility Districts (PUDs) are defined in most states as municipalities. The money that rate payers pay for the power provided by a PUD is "public money" just as water and sewer payments are.

 

Your "munis" are not selling LTE cell service but retail Internet to the end users. They are government agencies operating on public money and are not "for profit utilities".

 

I have problems with government agencies supplanting business entities. I think I've outlined a few of my problems, above. I am not worried about for-profit or even not-for-profit corporations entering the market. If they fail then they go out of business and their investors lose money. But if a tax-supported agency gets it wrong they end up gouging their tax-payers. And they almost never actually disappear.

 

And this has happened. Tax payers in Provo, UT shelled out $39 million to build out a fiber-to-the-home network. Last year Google bought the system for $1. That $39 million was paid by every tax-payer in Provo, UT whether they actually used (or wanted) the municipal fiber system or not.

 

Sorry... make that $38,999,999. Google did ante up a buck.

 

And Prove couldn't make it pay out even when all they had to do was connect up the buildings in a city. It's much more expensive to connect rural areas. You seem to think that they'll easily connect up farmers and ranchers.

 

Chelan County PUD, in Washington State, an early advocate of fiber-to-the-home, will admit to investing $110 million in a fiber system that reaches only 70% of possible subscribers but only 37% of those actually subscribe. The system continues to operate at a loss and the PUD Commissioners voted in 2010 to stop building out the fiber BECAUSE RURAL CONNECTIONS COST FAR MORE THAN CITY CONNECTIONS.

 

And Chelan PUD's costs do not include the money they had to pony up in order to support NOANET, an ISP that is wholly owned by PUDs in Washington State yet is considered by the PUDs to be a "non-profit corporation". NOANET, because of it's public-money funding, is able to undercut other providers and has sucked down accounts at all the school districts, all the data centers, and all the public agencies in WA. Accounts that were once serviced by for-profit corporations. Yet NOANET has never paid back the PUDs for their "investment" and still operates at a loss. A loss covered by tax payers.

 

If your retirement fund has invested in them, you were screwed by a "muni".

 

Public corporations are required by the SEC to file reports that are available to investors. Municipalities have no such requirement other than state laws; and I can tell you from experience that accurate financial reports are often very hard to get.

 

Most municipalities finance their construction costs with municipal bonds which are tax-free. For profit corporations also sell bonds but the interest on those bonds is not tax free. What's more, a badly managed project can result in bonds - even municipal bonds - being cancelled.

 

The largest single repudiation of municipal bonds was the Washington Public Power System (with the surprisingly accurate acronym of "WPPS" = pronounced "Whoops"). This was $250 million in bonds that was simply written off. People who bought those bonds lost their money. The repudiation was the result of a mismanaged build out of nuclear power plants; the husks of which stand today.

 

WPPS was renamed Energy Northwest but is the same entity and today owns and operates one nuclear power plant on the Hanford Reservation as well as a large wind-power system.

 

But thanks for straightening me out.

 

WDR

1993 Foretravel U225 with Pacbrake and 5.9 Cummins with Banks

1999 Jeep Wrangler, 4" lift and 33" tires

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