Remember the good ol’ days when you had multiple ISPs knocking at your virtual door and vying for your $15/month dial-up internet access? One of them make you cross? Not meeting your standards? You could simply switch to another.
Oregon once had a multitude of ISPs to choose from, and while there are still a few dial-up holdouts in remote areas, the choices for broadband internet have been limited to two. That’s right, the majority of Americans only have two ISPs to choose from.
Of course, we aren’t alone in this: According to the Washington Post, 87% of Americans have to choose between only two broadband internet service providers, however; the remaining 13% have only a single choice for an ISP.
I’ve touted the National Broadband Plan  in a previous column (“IT plan is the right step for America’s future,” ODE, March 5), but with this new lack-of-choice information in mind, it’s got me thinking. Instead of stretching broadband out to cover all corners of America, why not focus on making it possible for competing ISPs to function? This would spur the economy, and would spur corporate competition, which means one thing for the end-user: competitive pricing and service. Once there are more than two ISPs in major areas it would force them, by virtue of competition, to seek out the rural and distant markets targeted in the plan with their networks. The current plan only includes suggestions to help promote competition. Since this is an official plan, with taxpayer dollars backing it, perhaps it should include more “planning” and less “suggesting.” As it stands we are only expanding the current reach of the two major American broadband ISPs.
The FCC has been in play the last few years, but mostly by having its leash reigned in. In 2005, they made the landmark decision that caused this ISP crisis. Where once Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) companies were required to share networks much like railroads shared rails in the 19th century, thereby promoting competition and ensuring that companies need not require a lot of capital to start up or have to build redundant networks. The FCC decided, hey, just because it worked in the 19th century and America was built upon railroads doesn’t mean we should continue that tradition of success! Let’s destroy the market. So they ruled that DSL was to be kept to the same constraints as cable in terms of sharing, i.e. none. As such we now have a dearth of ISP choices, as they all dried up because they couldn’t afford to create redundant data networks. If you’re reading this, and you’ve ever been happy with cable TV service, I think you should stand up and announce it to everyone around you. I’d be curious to hear their responses. Putting access to the internet in the same sort of unwashed hands as cable TV is an epic fail. I’m talking like Matrix sequels, here.
Still and all, Eugene is on the cusp of a unique chance. Google’s gigabit ISP has considered Eugene as a potential place to test its service. What does this mean? Three ISP choices in one city in America. Blasphemy, I know, but hear me out, because I’m talking about such a massive increase in speed. On a current 15 Mb cable line it would take you around 89 minutes to download a 10 GB file.
On Google’s new Gigabit network this same file at their proposed speeds up to 1,000 Mb (which translates into 125 MB/sec) would take approximately 80 seconds to complete. The potential for broadband content and revolution under this new, blazing-fast ISP is beyond any scope I want to try to pin down at this point, but I will say that the implications for flash-based webpages and Microsoft Silverlight are very, very good.
It should be apparent now why towns are going nuts trying to get google’s attention. A mayor in the Great Lakes region jumped into the frigid water to prove his love for Google. Topeka, Kansas, renamed itself to Google, Kansas for a month and Google, in turn, named itself Topeka for a day. We’ve seen excitement when Eugene was looked at as a potential city, and local leaders banded together with other nearby towns to show support and attract Google with a unified front, rather than some crazy attention-grab. Here’s to hoping their sincere maturity pans out.
Eugene is the perfect place for this new broadband network. Eugene had Hynix Semiconductor, and currently has the Symantec Corporation. At one point in Eugene’s future it looked like we’d be known for more than the Country Fair and our Football team.
It makes sense to start in Eugene because it’s fair-sized, small enough for testing purposes, but big enough to provide a profitable market. It’s hi-tech minded, it’s surrounded by hi-tech in other cities, perfect for expansion. According to Eugene-OR.gov, Eugene is also looking to be on the cusp of the green energy revolution, adding a positive mark for investor relations.
Having Google Gigabit in Eugene, would not only revitalize the local high-tech industry, but it would attract more to it. Eugene would be the birthplace of Gigabit Internet in the U.S. It’d pave massive inroads from Silicon Valley to the Silicon Forest, which could easily be extended down to Eugene.
Sure, there’s all the great economic and pioneering reasons I’ve already told you about, but at the end of the day, wouldn’t you like to download content 66 times as fast as you can currently?
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