Tri-County becomes the first electric co-op in Florida to tackle FTTH | Hacker News Reader

Tri-County becomes the first electric co-op in Florida to tackle FTTH

fiercetelecom.com

66 pointsPaulHoule11 comments

This is somewhat notable because Florida is one of several state with laws that present roadblocks for municipal broadband efforts in the US.

From [1]:

> Florida state laws impose “ad valorem” taxes on municipal broadband networks, but does not impose such taxes on other public utilities or services sold to the public. The state laws generally subject municipalities to restrictions on capital-intensive initiatives that make broadband projects difficult to begin. The statutes require municipalities to hold at least two public hearings, during which local officials must offer a roadmap to profitability within four years — making nearly any citywide municipal broadband proposal unfeasible.

I'm wondering if the fact that they're leveraging the co-op's power grid to do the build-out helps them get around this.

[1]: https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadbloc...

This is amazing. 2Gbit service for 99 a month is a great deal in the US. If it's reliable and fast ... * I almost considered thinking twice about moving down to Florida...*

You can get up to 10 Gbit in Chattanooga with a similar system:

https://epb.com/

EPB of Chattanooga is always the model system for muni internet. They also said that their goal is not to dominate (which is their current position now), but to make sure that at least competing companies will match up their offerings (which commercial consumer ISPs tried until EPB rolled out multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds).

I am crying look at this. We're lucky to get 50 Mbps here in Sydney,Australia :(. The "gigabit" speeds here seem to be in the 250 Mbps range [0]

[0]https://www.techradar.com/au/best/best-nbn-1000-plans

Sure, 0.25 Gbps, it’s not like your ISP is lying. I had 0.1 Gbps before Google Fiber came through.

Amazing. Love muni-fiber efforts.

My co-op here in Indiana just deployed fiber. For $124 a month I get a gig down and up behind CGNAT.

I live in rural Indiana and our REMC rolled it out a few years ago, 1Gbps up/down for $95.00, no additional taxes or fees. I am paying slightly more as I was paying for 6Mbps DSL, that always had signal quality issues. Maybe there are reasons the phone company couldn't do better, but it seems like the co-op's focus is on delivering good service, and not how much money they can extract from people who otherwise don't have a choice. Last I heard the telco was finally looking into FTTH (now that there is some competition?)

My installer explained that the USDA subsidized a portion of the co-op's build-out, since rural areas are often underserved by broadband providers. I don't know all the specifics but I genuinely hope that it's sustainable in the long term for them (even if the subsidies weren't there). The article indicates that the co-op (or their partner at least) has done it with FCC money, from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. I know there's some balance between "well it's your fault you live in the middle of nowhere" and "we must deliver broadband to every American, at any cost," but I'm glad these programs exist so there's a chance of some competition/option in currently-underserved areas.

IMO Utility Co-Op's are a better way to solve the issue than Municipal Broadband alot of people seem to be in in favor of.

I just dont think, or want, local government providing internet access, that inevitably makes it a political tool. Co-Ops put the members (i.e subscribers) of the service in control

This is great! Unfortunately, for better or worse, it does seem to be limited to more rural areas.

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