I just moved to a small town. A regional city has rolled out municipal fiber and the towns around it have the opportunity to hook into that city’s municipal fiber network if we rollout the infrastructure.
Comcast is spending money through fake grassroots groups to try to get people to vote NO.
I’m trying to convince my fellow citizens to vote YES. The town would take out a loan to rollout the infrastructure, monthly fees would go to pay off that loan and presumably pay the city for the fiber connection as well.
Honestly, the details don’t interest me as much as just having a better service and having an option other than Comcast. I figured that “locally owned and operated” would be a slam dunk with xenophobic Republicans, but they seem to be convinced by Comcast’s lobbying on the issue and are going to vote NO because taxes might go up (if people don’t switch to the service). Has anyone had success with convincing people of the value of municipal fiber?
Maybe tell them about the digestive benefits.
It should be mandatory to reveal in the title which country the article refers to. In this case: [Third World - US]
Our president is a Russian asset. That makes us a second world country. The more you learn!
Your goal and your question aren’t about fiber, they are about local politics.
Look at how successful campaigns have gone in the past, look at failed campaigns. Find other locals that also want this and share the work. Get together and plan.
I believe in Colorado that Longmont and Fort Collins have had successful muni-fiber votes and are currently operating. They may provide examples of shiny, happy customers.
Yep. Came here to mention Fort Collins and Longmont succeeded despite a Comcast campaign. It can be done; study them.
Here’s a short piece found after a brief search:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/comcast-led-campaign-ad-tried-232700937.html
I can vouch for Longmont municipal fiber. Blazing fast, and the price is locked in at $50 per month for life. We’ve never had an outage. There are absolutely no downsides, it has even forced Comcast to improve their own infrastructure and pricing in the area to compete.
Hello fellow Longmonster! Nextlight is life!
I don’t have an answer, but wanted to point out: a fake grassroots effort is called astroturfing (due to it being fake grass)
See, this will make me remember that now, because you’ve made sense of it. Thanks!
I’ve only just learned that from another Lemmy poster recently, and had the same reaction, so now you too are cursed with the etymological knowledge and must share it far and wide.
Haha, I will when I run into an opportunity!
I waited 8 years for fiber where I live, and I even went door to door telling my whole neighborhood that there was a cheaper, faster alternative to Comcast, and all we had to do was sign up. When it was finally getting it installed, the technician told me that our neighborhood only got fiber because a local criminal organization had bought a couple cherry pickers and was stripping the copper from pole to pole.
Apparently it takes someone stealing the copper repeatedly before the telcos will invest a dime on upgrades.
It sounds like renting a cherry picker and stealing copper is an option.
I guess that’s an instance of crime benefiting society. 🤣
you might be surprised at the positive effects of organized crime
Oh, I have read about the mob.
I don’t have any experience doing this, so take everything I say with a grain of salt, but my first step would be to collect information on how similar projects have turned out in the past, in terms of cost and adoption, as well as how much money Comcast is spending to counter this effort and what kinds of services they offer in the area at different price points. Then see if there are any people in the community that agree with you on the deployment of municipal internet who could be convinced to make the effort to assist you with convincing the rest of the community. With that information and those people, organize a canvasing effort, as in go door to door and actually talk to people about their stance on the matter. I would focus on that “locally owned and operated” argument, as well as the fact that if Comcast is spending money trying to prevent this they surely must be expecting to earn even more money from not having any competition in the area, so they can get away with higher prices and worse service.
I do have a little experience and you are correct! Canvassing or fliers or whatever is very much a YMMV per location but collaborating with fellow supporters and grabbing data to back up your position are both solid starting points.
Hooray, I’m glad my thought process for initial steps was correct. If you don’t mind me asking, my thought process for the recommendation of canvasing as opposed to something like flyers is that doing so would make you and your efforts come across as more human and genuine, especially if part of the pitch was that Comcast was astroturfing, do you know if that’s something that actually works?
Like I said your mileage may vary. I know in my town, fliers are fairly effective because there are a lot of high-foot-traffic spots where they can be posted. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone go door to door about something, but we have had folks attend local events with requests for signatures and they seem to do decently. You gotta know your community to know how best to reach out to them.
I freaking love my town’s municipal fiber! It’s GLORIOUSLY FAST and rock stable, haven’t had ONE outage in the past 3 years. Cheaper than the coaxial cable I used to have through spectrum (previously called themselves charter). Coaxial cable is a scam nowadays.
Maybe lean extra hard on the coastal elite big media propaganda. You can’t outsmart a moron, maybe out stupid them instead.
We fought the same fight here a few years ago to get municipal power. FUD is a powerful adversary, we lost. :(
Ask those in surrounding towns of what they pay for Comcast and how much it changed after the proposal came through town.
Ask family and friends in other areas what they pay for internet and with who. Compare that data to the municipal offering and watch them get angry as they get confused.
Building on this, see if you can collect pricing over time where Comcast is the only option vs. places where Comcast faces competition from other providers. I’ve lived in Comcast-only markets and where they compete with Verizon FiOS. Their pricing when forced to compete is often more reasonable.
The answer to the ‘Taxes might go up’ concern is that even if taxes do go up, it will be offset by cheaper broadband rates even for people who don’t switch. Comcast right now are operating an effective monopoly; when they lose that, and a presumably cheaper option becomes available, they’ll have to adjust their pricing to compete. Even folks who do not intend to switch stand to benefit from this initiative.
True, Taxes might go up.
But I guarantee your Comcast bill will go up far more then any tax.
I have no experience, something that might work is to talk with groups of people from a hobby or interest group. Try to speak with the leaders prior to understand typical concerns.
Maybe try to research cities that successfully pulled it off and emulate tactics they used. See if you can reach out to people who led those campaigns for advice.
Sorry buddy, rural folks cannot be educated and think anything good for society is communism
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