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The following information was relayed by Brian Becker to City Council on Monday, Aug 2, 2010. Additional supporting information has been added for clarity:
According to Mr. Bach, every time a light switch is turned on or the faucet is opened, citizens are subsidizing MyCityCable to the tune of over $1,000,000 each year.
I am on record stating that these numbers ARE NOT accurate and the city IS NOT losing money on Internet.
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According to semo.net:
The cost to increase capacity from the current 150 Mb to 300 Mb should be a one-time cost of less than $50,000 and possible only $20,000. If the books of the Internet portion were separated from the TV income/expenses then I believe it could easily be shown that the Internet side is profiting and can absorb that cost. Remember, making the network better is better for the citizens. Making the prices cheaper by competition is better for the citizens. City Cable should not run it’s network as a business. It should run the network as a government which provides infrastructure for citizens lives to be better.
We welcome a response from the City.
Similar questions are:
Shouldn’t the city benefit from the network they put in?
The simple answers are:
Without profit incentives, no private business would compete. And without competition, there is no assurance of lowest price.
Because the citizens should benefit from this network…not the city
If you go to a concert at the Black River Coliseum by an independent promoter. If the concert is a success, both the promoter and the band profit from the use of city property. If the concert is not a success, the city still gets its basic costs covered for the use of their facilities. Do you walk away from the concert thinking…that promoter shouldn’t get all those profits, it should be the city’s money! No, typically not.
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Similar questions are:
Comcast and Charter don’t open up their network, why should the city?
The simple answers are:
Because unlike private business, the city should not be profit-driven but citizen-centered.
And, choice is always good from the consumer, but rarely good for the provider. The more providers; the stiffer the competition; the better the price.
I understand the reason for this question and the confusion behind it. The difference is who owns the network. In our case, the citizens own the cable network.
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Below is the cover-letter for a packet of information provided to the City Council on Friday. Packet for City Council members
Dear Council members,
At the last meeting, Councilwoman McVey asked for information to be provided in advance with your packet of information. Councilman Matthews echoed that sentiment as well. With that in mind, I prepared the enclosed material to be included for the upcoming meeting.
I was at the City Clerk / City Manager’s offices yesterday asking how I could get my material included; Mr. Bagby refused my information and informed me that I needed to mail it to you directly. Read the rest of this entry »
After watching the KFVS story, my wife asked, “What did you mean by ‘the City has forgotten who helped them get to where they are today?’.”
In 2002 when City Cable announced that it was considering doing Internet service, our company had thousands of dialup customers in the Poplar Bluff area. MyCityCable had 0 customers at that time. The City Council voted to open their Cable Internet service up to all ISPs and encourage companies like semo.net to bring their dialup customers onto the network.
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On Friday, I was contacted by the local channel 12 report, Tyler Profilet, saying that the station had received numerous requests to run the story. He interviewed me on the phone in the morning and arranged for a video interview yesterday afternoon.
The story appeared very accurate and I was very pleased with the piece.
KFVS Story on Friday’s Six O’clock News
(both the transcript and video versions are available)
semo.net has been around since 1995. Long before City Cable provided Internet service…semo.net was here…and for years to come, semo.net will continue to provide great Internet service in our area.
Of course this move by the city is disappointing. And in this economy, it would not be fair to say this isn’t going to be detrimental to our current business model. But remember that the same ingenuity that created & sustained semo.net is still at work within our staff.
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Last night was not the only City-run activity that semo.net and Brian Becker were involved in. The Surfers were without their head coach for the semi-final game against Bluff Falls where they won 12-1 under the leadership of Coach Bryan Cooper. Ben Becker and Isaac Laseter pitched the team to victory along with the Surfer bats which included Tyler Williams’ over the fence Home Run.
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The city of Poplar Bluff just passed an ordinance that says a Megabit on their network costs $1051 when sold to an ISP.
Yes, that’s right, a business can purchase a 3Meg Cable Account from MyCityCable for $99/month (or $33 per Megabit), but when sold to an ISP, that 3 Megabits costs $3153.
AT&T charges ISPs and large businesses $22 per Megabit
Level3 charges $45 per Megabit in Poplar Bluff
Level3 charges $12.50 per Megabit in St Louis