On Wed, Mar 02, 2005 at 05:04:14AM +0800, Scott Dier wrote: > This leaves me with two options, Qwest and Comcast. Comcast can not > provide me with a connection that has a legal agreement within a > reasonable price range. Qwest can, but at a much lower downlink speed > (1.5mbps vs. 4mbps) and a faster uplink speed (1mbps vs 384kbps.) My > Qwest bill is $58/month, but could be less if I didn't have 1 static IP > as $53/month. I don't think the working poor need legal agreements with SLA's. > 256kbps Internet is not broadband. I'm fairly sure there was some false > advertising lawsuits at some point on this issue. The FCC definition of broadband is 200 kbit/s (0.2Mb) in one direction, and advanced broadband is at least 200 kbit/s (0.2 Mb) in both directions > In any case, if you are a business owner and you feel like meddeling in > local politics without actually living or providing services to the > city, please find a real argument other than you have a business to run. I live in the cities (Inver Grove Heights, a hop skip away from St Paul), I work from home. > Even if you are providing services, ask yourself why the city thinks > they can get a muni running and doesn't it take a supermajority (65%) of > voters to get one started? If taxpayers are *willing* to pay on their > own local dollars to handle the problem, let them -- you messed up the > market by not being able to satisfy the customers. The people are lemmings, they see "wow, cheaper/free internet from the city! screw [comcast/qwest/msn/visi/real-time/whoever]" and do not consider the actual cost, or the reality that such a system will _not_ operate cleanly. > I've listed some communities below. The interesting thing would be to > go through and find all the broadband options for each community and the > cost/speed options Providers: A) Qwest Choice DSL and Internet Basic (256/256kbit) $24.99 B) Qwest Choice DSL MSN Premium (1.5mbit) $26.99/$31.99 C) Earthlink DSL (3mbit) $39.95 D) RoadRunner Cable (6mbit/768kbit) $44.95/? E) Comcast Cable (4mbit/384kbit) $42.95/$57.95 F) Comcast Cable (4mbit/384kbit) - Current Special $29.95/$29.95** *DSL/Cable products may require existing phone line or cable TV service, or an extra fee w/o them, indicated where known. Addresses were chosen at random using phone numbers/addresses from the web, "ghetto" addresses where possible. All prices are per-month after any signup specials have ended. ** Comcast has regular specials where you sign up for $x/mo and it stays $x/mo as long as you're a customer, they're currently running one that expires 3/31 > Minneapolis: > Median Income $37,974 > Family Median Income $48,602 > Per Capita Income $22,685 > Percent in Poverty 16.9% A, B, C, D > > St. Paul: > Median Income $38.774 > Family Median Income: $48,925 > Per Capita Income: $20,216 > Percent in Poverity: 15.6% A, B, C, E, F > > Coon Rapids: > Median Income: $55,550 > Family Median Income: $62,260 > Per Capita Income: $22,915 > Percent in Poverty: 4.8% A. C, E, F > Anoka: > Median Income: $42,659 > Family Median Income: $55,311 > Per Capita Income: $21,367 > Percent in Poverty: 6.8% A, B, C, E, F > Dayton: > Median Income: $66,875 > Family Median Income: $71,356 > Per Capita Income: $27,756 > Percent in Poverty: 2.7% Same as Anoka. > > Rogers: > Median Income: $73,143 > Family Median Income: $76,984 > Per Capita Income: $25,845 > Percent in Poverty: 1.8% E, F > > Maple Grove: > Median Income: $76,111 > Family Median Income: $81,873 > Per Capita Income: $30,544 > Percent in Poverty: 1.4% E, F I couldn't find an appropriate residential phone #/address pair to get DSL availability for Maple Grove. > > Edina: > Median Income: $66,019 > Family Median Income: $93,496 > Per Capita Income: $44,195 > Percent in Poverty: 3.3% A, B, C, D > > Blaine: > Median Income: $52,219 > Family Median Income: $63,831 > Per Capita Income: $22,777 > Percent in Poverty: 3.0% E, F I could have been more thorough, but it looks like poverty levels have nothing to do with service availability, only population density and relative "age" of an area (ie, places that were farm land 10 years ago). -- Matthew S. Hallacy FUBAR, LART, BOFH Certified http://www.poptix.net GPG public key 0x01938203