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Comment by corey_moncure | Hacker News Reader

A telecommunications monopoly is a strange thing.

There are 725,000 people in Denver. If we naively assume that one sixth of them pay for an internet subscription at $100/mo each, that's $145,000,000 annually that the people could use to fund their own ISP.

The people are held captive by a combination of forces that appear to have nothing to do with economics. If they could all communicate together they could easily fund their own alternative. Appallingly, the place that they are being held captive is a communications network!!

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That is on the high side for a connection in Denver -- I think you are overestimating costs.

I looked in a poorer neighborhood in Denver (700sq.ft. house), which is clearly close to fiber, and from Centurylink for $65/mo they can get 940Mbps, for $49/mo they can get 100Mbps.

Looks like for $20/month, xfinity will do 25Mbps at the same address.

Do all or even a meaningful majority of people in Denver have access to Centurylink fiber? Every city I’ve seen it in is usually restricted to small areas or newer developments.

I don't know, but I don't -- I'm paying $70 for phone and 60Mbps VDSL in a suburb of the Denver metro area from Centurylink.

When purchasing a house, I would type in the address to centurylink’s website to find out if fiber was available. I didn’t see any old houses (even built in 2000) with it. All the ones that had fiber were developments built in 2015+

I don't have access to Centurylink billing standards, but in my experience actual dollars billed by Comcast are routinely 30% higher than the sticker price of the service. I assume other services are similar. I don't think your numbers are too far off.

Also that Comcast number at the end is for sure an intro price. Actual cost after the first year will be much, much higher.

Centurylink’s $65 940Mbps up and down fiber offering is literally just $65 total, including all taxes and fees.

> Looks like for $20/month, xfinity will do 25Mbps at the same address.

I live in Denver (and a poorer neighborhood at that), I had this plan before coronavirus sent us all home. This is the price for the first year, after that, they charge $60/month. Switched to century link for 1Gbps up/down for $65.

Good to know, and I'm not surprised... that one reason I don't use them. Bait&switch, datacaps, and horrible customer service. Come to think of it, they are probably why the ballot measure was passed to start with.

True. If enough people put money they can even produce, Movies and TV shows and they no longer have to depend on big bad Hollywood studios for entertainment.

What does a comment like this achieve. We're talking about something thats about as essential as other utilities particularly during Covid. Go lick boots elsewhere.

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