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Comment by sebleon | Hacker News Reader

Cool initiative based on positive ideals. From a practical perspective, NYC citizens have a number of good options for internet access; however, perhaps learnings from this community project can be brought to more needy areas outside the US.

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Do you live in NYC? I do, and I don't have at all what I'd call "a number of good options" for internet access. In my area, there's two companies who operate similar to a monopoly (Verizon and Optimum), and regularly raise prices arbitrarily and often for no reason.

Having two choices actually might put you well above average for the US. Back when I was in Mountain View, CA (a few miles from Google HQ) it was either Comcast or nothing and the irony was not lost on me.

AT&T had an offering when I lived in Mountain View that was so comically terrible as to not realistically be an option at all.

This is still true as of last year. Comcast was the only viable option.

Ah, I meant 'good' relative to options in the developing world. Getting +20Mb/s for under 0.1-5% of your annual income puts you way ahead of most people on Earth.

But yes, I'm sure there's cities out there with more options than NYC.

You get two? My block on 78th and 1st has Twc, I mean Spectrum, and I don't know what I'm going to do when they get kicked out of the state.

Yeah... every apartment of mine has had exactly one option, TWC=>Spectrum (in Manhattan) or Optimum (in Brooklyn).

I've lived in 4 apartments in 7 years and never once had a choice.

A lot of this may have to do with the building & management -- often times, the building's condo/coop board strikes an exclusivity deal with the ISPs and get a share of the revenue.

[I'm on a condo board]

I live in the West Village and have ONE choice... Spectrum :(

Internet choice really comes down to what building you live in. A building might have exactly 1 ISP available, or there may be 3+. Always ask before renting if you can't afford to be saddled with DSL-only internet access.

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