Kansas Town To Bypass Big Carriers By Providing Own High Speed Net. AT&T Pissed

Chanute, Kansas 
Pisses Off The Big Boys And Girls

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanute,_Kansas

Excerpt: "Last year, in a move sponsored by cable companies, Kansas Republicans put forward legislation designed at stopping the growth of broadband in rural communities after cable and phone services had turned them down."

Rural Communities across America worry about struggling to maintaining a population.  Kids leave, and the services they expect in a big city simply aren't available for them.  For pete sake, in most communities data caps and low speed internet service means that businesses too are struggling to stay.

In light of this, one Kansas community last year decided to strike out.

http://www.chanute.com/...

Chanute has established its own fiber optic network for government use and as a service to local businesses. The city is exploring the possibility of expanding fiber optics to most homes in the community for possible automated metering infrastructure and to provide cable, internet and phone service to individual homes.

The expansion of the fiber optic network would cost the city $20 million and would need a subscription rate of 34 percent of Chanute households to break even in three years, based on information shared at Monday’s luncheon.

City officials have approached communications provider AT&T about installing a fiber optic network in Chanute, an idea AT&T had no interest in when approached in 2009, Gates said.

USD 413 Superintendent James Hardy said he is impressed with the current fiber optic network provided to schools by the city.

Today, Chanute is prepared to move forward - to offer 1Gbps service to their residents and businesses at the low rate of $40 per month.   Now, AT&T is deciding to call this all 'unfair'.

Last year, in a move that was sponsored by cable companies, Kansas Republicans put forward legislation designed at stopping the growth of broadband in rural communities after cable and phone services had turned them down.

In a diary posted here: http://www.dailykos.com/...  I covered how this move sought to shut small towns out of negotiating for better services for their residents and to preserve their own tax base.

Now, Chanute Kansas looks to turn on it's fiber network and finds itself with the ghoul in the room of AT&T, who looks to shut down their service.. you see, it's hard to sell 6Mbps DSL internet for significantly more with data caps when someone else is offering 1Gbps with no caps.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

It’s true that a 1Gbps fiber service would definitely impact AT&T’s business operations in the area and likely for the very worse. Ars Technica points out that Chanute would charge citizens just $40 per month for its 1Gbps service, which is a mere $5 more than the six-month teaser rate for AT&T’s 6Mbps service. What’s more, AT&T’s plan includes a hard data cap of 150GB per month and going over that limit will set you back by an additional $10 per month

http://www.kansas.com/...

After beating back a legislative effort to stop them, city leaders in Chanute now face another state government hurdle in their effort to extend ultra-high-speed fiber broadband to residents’ homes and businesses.

The service the city is planning has a download speed of 1 gigabit and is projected to cost $40 a month for city residents. That’s 14 times faster and 60 percent cheaper than the fastest Internet service that Chanute residents can get now.

Chanute, like many small communities is trying to look after their future by giving residents and businesses a reason to stay in a program that is likely to pay for itself within 3 years.   The Chanute City government contends that this would likely help attract and keep residents - a nice way to hold their tax base in place.

Now, however, AT&T will ask for the state to intervene and to keep the residents locked out of high speed network services.

Chanute City officials, however, feel confident that in the end the state commission will provide them the go ahead to make the offer.

Protests in the state house, letter writing and support to kill the prior attempt to stop Chanute were critical in making sure that rural communities were able to stand up to the resources that the internet services put against them.

Can a rural Kansas town set the standard for how internet services could be offered to residents?