If you want to follow my shared links in real time instead of as a weekly digest, head over to Delicious. You can search them there easily too.
- Want 50Mbps Internet in your town? Threaten to roll out your own – Minnesota town wants fast fiber broadband to the curb. Cable internet monopoly refuses. Town passes a referendum funding construction of a municipally owned network. Cable company sues town frivolously in order to delay construction of said network, and installs its own first. What a crock of monopolistic bull. This kind of crap is why we don't have fiber to the door.
- Why Google Doesn’t Like Its Phone Bill – Local phone carriers get paid an access fee to connect an incoming call to one of their users. In rural areas, these fees are high, because population density, and thus call volume, are low. Or at least, they're supposed to be. If you're an enterprising rural carrier, you can game the system by routing phone sex services or free conference calling through your district, exploiting the long distance carriers who are forced to connect to you by callers who have generally have no idea what's going on. Google doesn't like paying these fees (and neither does any other long distance carrier), so Google now blocks calls to these numbers. Wacky FCC hijinx ensue!
