By Michael Pellegrini
I was so proud when the city of Tacoma stood up to TCI Cable and basically told them to bug off. The city fathers had been in protracted negotiations with TCI and had not been getting anywhere at all. At the time, Tacoma had around 30 or so television channels, no real Internet alternatives except dial-up, and according to TCI, no prospects for anything better because it just was not in the cards.
Out of that mess, Click! Network was born. TCI would not provide better service, so the city took the matter into its own hands and built a municipal fiber-optic network of its own - competing directly with the big guys.
Click! boldly offered a television channel lineup that was the envy of much larger cities, and offered Internet service resold through three local Internet service providers. The war was on.
This spurred a building frenzy by TCI and for several more years, cable-laying trucks dotted the city’s landscape, as they struggled to catch up. All the competition worked. A dozen years later, we have literally hundreds of cable television channels offered through Click! and through Comcast (TCI’s successor), and more choices for Internet service than you can shake a stick at.
Then in December 2008, the stakes were raised in the Internet service end when Comcast upgraded its Tacoma-area network to what is called DOCSIS 3.0. This blows away the old speed limits of about 40 Mb/s. With DOCSIS 3.0, carriers like Comcast can run up to about 170 Mb/s through those same basic cable television lines.
Comcast had good reasons for the upgrade - nationwide, there is a lot of pressure to increase Internet speeds. The recently released Federal Communications Commission National Broadband Plan has us working towards the goals of bringing affordable 100 Mb/s speeds to 125 million homes.
As a nation, we are not even close to that right now. One study by the Communications Workers of America done in August 2009 found the average download speed in the United States was just 5.1 Mb/s. Compare that to the rest of the world: in South Korea, average download speeds are 20.4 Mb/s. In Japan it is 15.8 Mb/s. In Sweden it is 12.8 Mb/s. The Netherlands is 11 Mb/s. In Hong Kong they have symmetrical gigabit Internet available - 1,000 Mb/s.
For broadband Internet, the United States is a Third World nation. The birthplace of broadband Internet was ranked 23rd in Internet speeds in a 2008 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The National Broadband Plan would change this; it recognizes that having fast, affordable Internet service is essential for our continued economic development.
That really was not big news - the major carriers were already scrambling to catch up. Comcast’s goals are to have 50 Mb/s available to 100 percent of its customers and 100 Mb/s available to at least 20 percent of customers by 2011. Comcast is even exploring the possibility of offering speeds of up to 250 Mb/s. The other big carriers mostly have similar plans.
So where is Click! in this? Fifteen months after the local Comcast speed upgrades, Click! has not even started its own upgrades. This puts Click! customers at an extreme disadvantage. Comcast customers get way better deals at every price point. And inexplicably, Click! has not even tried to offer a competing low-end product, even though they could.
In the Tacoma area, Comcast prices are $24.95 for one Mb/s down and 354 Kb/s up; $19.99 for six months then $42.95 for 15 Mb/s down and three Mb/s up; $52.95 for 20 Mb/s down and four Mb/s up; $62.95 for 30 Mb/s down and seven Mb/s up and $99.95 for 50 Mb/s down and 10 Mb/s up.
Click! Network prices are $32.95 for residential one class for three Mb/s down and 256 Kb/s up; $42.95 for residential two class for zero Mb/s down and 768 Kb/s up and $59.95 for 15 Mb/s down and 768 Kb/s up. Click! management is seemingly oblivious of where broadband Internet is headed. They have lost touch with their market and their products.
We should not get less bandwidth simply because we choose to buy Internet service from the city. A city-owned utility must offer prices and products at least as good or better than the competition. Is that not the whole point?
It is make it or break it time for Click! Let us hope they rise to the challenge and offer competitive prices and products before all their customers leave - and we lose our investment.
Municipal broadband is the best alternative.
Michael Pellegrini is a Tacoma resident.
