[Hidden-tech] Northampton City Municipal Network

[Jonathan Mirin]

Hi Mark,
I live in the Hilltowns so am not really a candidate for your primary work
group but I want to encourage you and am happy to share resources or attend
a city council meeting - we found a lawyer who is helping us prepare some
amendments to Shelburne's telecommunications by-laws in light of the coming
5G rollout - which includes the elimination of home rule when it comes to
infrastructure placement - so that the town has a leg to stand on when
those small cell applications start coming in and saturating rural
communities with microwave radiation while decreasing the property values
of anyone unlucky enough to have an antenna placed outside their bedroom
window. Telecom/the FCC's idea is to take over the right of way in order to
place mini-cell towers on light/utility poles every hundred yards with
minimal or no local input. If you are successful in creating a locally
owned fiber to the home network, that will be a significant leg up if you
or others choose to fight the loss of local control that 5G represents, ie,
you will already have unlimited speed, a safe and secure network, etc. I've
collected some resources if you scroll down to "a current focus . . . "
here: www.hilltownhealth.org
best, Jon

Jonathan Mirin / Godeliève Richard
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On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 10:43 AM, Mark D. Hamill <markdhamill at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Jim, some months back there was a long discussion about Verizon's fiber.
> It's there but "dark", as confirmed to me by Mayor Narkewicz. The mayor
> said they have no interest in deploying it and see their market in the
> wireless area, having essentially ceded the home market to Comcast.
>
> I wonder what it would cost to simply buy Verizon's dark fiber for a city
> municipal network since they don't plan to use it and it's already there.
>
> Businesses only tend to enter a market if they think there is money to be
> made. Given the competition Verizon would have with Comcast and the last
> mile costs I can see why they don't want to bother. This is a reason for a
> city municipal network. Something as critical today as a robust information
> infrastructure should not be left to the private sector. A robust service
> at low prices benefits all users.
>
> I have four people interested so far. If you would be interested in being
> part of this group let me know.
>
> Mark
>
> On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 10:27 AM, ussailis at shaysnet.com <
> ussailis at shaysnet.com> wrote:
>
>> Good idea, but...
>>
>> I have been told that Verizon has fiber already in place, just not to the
>> home.
>>
>> Apparently those central office (CO) boxes on the side of the road are the
>> terminus of the fiber. There is an example of the box, located
>> approximately across the street from Ryan Rd school, in front of the gun
>> club.
>>
>> Does Verizon have any reason to complete the picture? I doubt it, but your
>> proposal might give them some motivation.
>>
>> I found a similar situation in Hatfield. There a box is located very close
>> to the start of a street. No one on the street has access to Verizon DSL
>> or
>> fiber. Once I spoke to Verizon engineering about this. There were no plans
>> even to supply DSL to compete with Comcast.
>>
>> It's all about the almighty buck. Not enough customers.
>>
>>
>> Jim Ussailis
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Original email:
>> -----------------
>> From: Mark D. Hamill markdhamill at gmail.com
>> Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2018 20:24:01 -0500
>> To: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
>> Subject: [Hidden-tech] Northampton City Municipal Network
>>
>>
>> I am looking for people on this list who reside or work in Northampton and
>> would be interested in joining me to advocate to the city council for
>> building a municipal network. I could try to do this myself but of course
>> there is strength in numbers.
>>
>> Having spoken with Mayor Narkewicz he is not against a municipal network
>> and is well informed on the subject. The city even funded a study to see
>> what would be involved in creating such a network. However, it doesn't
>> appear to be a priority for the city as service is available via Comcast
>> and there are the other usual pressing needs that cities have to deal
>> with.
>>
>> The city already has access to the telephone polls so there is nothing
>> preventing it from placing fiber on these polls. In addition the city and
>> apparently some local businesses in certain buildings avail themselves (or
>> potentially could do so) of a fiber network the city already accesses.
>>
>> Offhand I see two advantages to a municipal network: lower costs and the
>> potential to build a true fiber network. A true fiber network offers lots
>> of plusses including more reliability, higher speeds and huge amounts of
>> bandwidth. I believe having such an infrastructure city wide would
>> encourage more businesses to invest locally, increase property values,
>> allow more people to work from home and perhaps offer more flexibility in
>> services than Comcast can provide. It's pretty clear that Comcast sees no
>> reason to invest in a true fiber optic network as it is undeniably cheaper
>> to use their existing network and bilk it for everything it is worth,
>> since
>> they have virtually no competition.
>>
>> Having said that a separate network is just one approach for building a
>> municipal network. Here are some models:
>>
>> https://muninetworks.org/sites/www.muninetworks.org/files/
>> 2017-07-Muni-Fiber
>> -Models-Fact-Sheet-FINAL.pdf
>> <https://muninetworks.org/sites/www.muninetworks.org/files/2017-07-Muni-Fiber-Models-Fact-Sheet-FINAL.pdf>
>>
>> I am also seeing internet service as something that should be treated as a
>> utility. I suspect it is not that complex to actually set up and run such
>> a
>> network given this is all off the shelf technology now. (I'm sure
>> deploying
>> such a network is costly but the costs can be amortized over time.) As
>> such
>> I think we should think of it like gas, electricity, water and sewage:
>> basic infrastructure that we should take for granted with confidence that
>> a
>> local authority will manage it competently and at a fair cost, subject to
>> oversight by elected officials. We should subscribe to the services we
>> need
>> over this network with the service provider of choice, rather than prefer
>> bundles available from Comcast.
>>
>> I am sure there are many other advantages that some of you may know about.
>>
>> Please let me know if you are interested in participating in such an
>> endeavor. A group of us (hopefully with some local business owners) will
>> have more of an impression on the city council than I would. First we
>> would
>> need to meet, brainstorm and figure out a plan of action.
>>
>> I am a resident of Florence, an independent consultant who works from home
>> and would appreciate a modern and more cost effective municipal network. I
>> also like choice, and there really is none at the moment.
>>
>> Mark D. Hamill
>> markdhamill at gmail.com
>>
>>
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