[Solar-general] La coop de Internet

[Sebastian Bassi]

Hoy casualmente encontre un articulo que andaba buscando sobre un
pueblo que creo su propia coop para Internet. Yo segui este tema en su
momento porque donde estoy estamos presos de tarifas muy caras.
600$+IVA por 128Kbps de bajada (WIFI). Pensamos un grupo de clientes
de la zona hacer una coop o algo, pero esto implica alguien que se
dedique fulltime al tema y nadie de nosotros tiene tiempo, asi que no
lo vamos a hacer.
Pero aca se los paso. Suponiendo que se pueda hacer esto aca (cosa que
no tengo idea), no creo que les sirva para lo que quieren evitar (la
restriccion de la tarifa plana). Porque quien se manda a hacer esto
para escapar de los limites de TELECOM/TASA o quien sea mañana, es
gente que usa mucho la conexión o la usa permanentemente. Con esa
clase de clientes, el negocio no es rentable, digo negocio en el
sentido figurado, una coop no es comercial. Aunque les hayan vendido
512Kbps, para la empresa ISP, ellos asumen que NO TODOS USAN TODA la
conexión. El modelo de negocios es como las aseguradoras. Si vos tenes
cobertura contra incendio 100% de una casa, esto funciona porque NO
TODAS las casas se incendian. No se si me explico.
Aca va el articulo, tambien hay un URL con un FAQ (http://www.rric.net/faq/)


Broadband by the bootstraps     

How a group of neighbors built their own high-speed
network     

By Lisa Napoli
June 5, 2002


If you've ever dreamt about wresting control of your lousy
Internet Service Provider, or wished you could give the
phone or cable companies a giant piece of your
addled-by-crappy-customer-service-mind, you will love the
following story about some kindred spirits in the mountains
of Summit County, Colo.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD is called Ruby Ranch, and just weeks ago,
the people who live in these homes built on a former cattle
ranch — where moose roam amid picture postcard mountain
views — got their very own DSL service up and running.
That's because the phone company, Qwest, had no intention of
providing it to the remote community. Exasperated by their
snail-like 26K dial-up connections (there's no copper
connection to the central phone office) residents decided
the only way they'd get high-speed access was to start a
service themselves.

"After ten months of frustration, including litigation, we
got them to allow us to use unused wires in our
neighborhood," said Carl Oppedahl, a patent attorney by day
and one of the masterminds behind the service.

By law, phone companies are not allowed to say no to such an
arrangement, but they don't exactly make it easy for those
who ask.

"How jerk-like can they be," Oppedahl said, characterizing
it as an ingrained corporate culture defined by the maxim,
"never do something fast if there's a way to drag it out."
Since he'd successfully fought the phone company back when
he lived in New York, Oppedahl was undaunted by this battle.

HIGH-TECH IN A HORSE BARN

All the fighting is water under the proverbial bridge now,
though, as the Ruby Ranch Internet Cooperative Association
is online with a vengeance. It has but 12 subscribers, just
about what the group needed to break-even at the start.
(There are 40 homes in the neighborhood, some only occupied
part-time as vacation places.)   

Residents ponied up the $12,000 to purchase the necessary
equipment, which Oppedahl points out has already come down
in price. (Thanks, in part, to all those third-party DSL
providers that have gone belly-up, the necessary parts to
build a system are plentiful on eBay.)

Each subscribing home paid an upfront charge of $300, plus
$60 a month, a fee which Oppedahl says will eventually drop
as costs get paid down. The non-profit cooperative isn't
about making money; it's about providing a service.

The main equipment that operates the system is housed in a
horse barn in the neighborhood, Oppedahl said. The first
thing he did on the day the service launched was to send an
e-mail announcing to Ruby Ranch subscribers, "You are now
connected." Then, he walked the ten minutes from his home
over to the horse barn to peer at the blinking green lights
on the DSLAM.

"Each green light means a happy subscriber," he said.   

Users of the DSL service in Ruby Ranch range, as they do
elsewhere in America, from casual Net surfers to those who
work from home. Though a report released this week by
Pricewaterhouse Coopers says that adoption of broadband has
been slower in this country than predicted, anyone who has
used a fast connection knows it changes the online
experience forever from one of frustration and drudge to
zippiness and fun. It makes the Internet more of a real
medium, and less of a chore.

RURAL FRUSTRATION

It doesn't, however, erase the inevitable frustrations one
has with utility companies — and particularly as hellish
stories of the Adelphia bankruptcies of the world fill the
headlines, it makes sense why consumers might not be
clambering to sign up. Another problem, as Oppedahl puts it:
If you throw a dart at a map of the United States, much of
the nation can't access broadband even if they wanted to.   

Though availability and use are greatest in the most
populated areas, that is not the case in rural America. A
report in February from the Federal Communications
Commission found, "High-speed subscribers were reported in
97% of the most densely populated zip codes and in 49% of
zip codes with the lowest population densities."

Though he helps to protect people's intellectual property
for a living, Oppedahl said nothing would make him happier
than if frustrated others in low-bandwidth communities
ripped off the Ruby Ranch cooperative idea. To make it
easier to do that, he's built a Web site that details how he
and his neighbors did it: http://www.rric.net.

He also poses and answers the questions true gear-heads will
inevitably have about why Ruby Ranch chose to go the DSL
route, and not use wireless, broadband satellite, or burying
their own cable. Once the neighborhood decided to
investigate starting their own service, they methodically
studied and then discarded those ideas.

"There's a great feeling of satisfaction, on an emotional
level," Oppedahl said, as he was getting ready to help plan
a celebratory party this weekend at the home of a neighbor
and fellow subscriber. "Everybody would like to put one over
on the phone company." Kudos to Ruby Ranch residents for
taking matters into their own hands.

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