Seattle is a High Tech City. Our Internet is Underperforming.
Seattle is recognized as a global leader in civic innovation, and our economy booms as tech firms from across the world move here to take advantage of our highly trained and creative work force.
And yet in neighborhoods brimming with Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook employees, our internet speeds are dramatically slower than those found in small towns across America.
The reason why? They have municipal broadband.
There are over 750 communities across the country that have invested in their own internet infrastructure in order to make themselves competitive on the global stage. Meanwhile, Comcast and CenturyLink haven't bothered to invest in Seattle, because they're able to make a profit by continuing to offer the same old, slow, and expensive internet service.
If we're going to catch up to the rest of the world, our internet needs a well-deserved public upgrade.
Don't believe us? Just ask him:
Further Reading:
Wondering what a city wired with its own democratically controlled fiber internet network looks like? Look no further than the town of Sandy, 30 miles outside of Portland, where subscribers get gigabit speed connections from the city for $60 per month. (read more).
At midnight on November 6, Sprint began disconnecting thousands of customers across from the country from its WiMax Internet network, which it's shutting down. That's left at least two Seattle small businesses in a virtual "Internet dead zone," because their area of Sodo isn't serviced by CenturyLink or Comcast (read more).