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Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr  ·  activity timestamp last week

Holy shit I love my internet service provider said no one ever!

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/03/we-dont-care-we-dont-have-to/#were-the-phone-company

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https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: When your ISP pays you (03 Oct 2025)

A female figure in a 1960s dress and gloves, flying through the air astride a Western Electric Bell telephone handset. Her head has been replaced with the head of Karl Marx. A shower of US hundred dollar bills flows out of the receiver's earpiece and mic. In the background is a telephone pole with many wires attached to it, slicing chords through the blue sky.
A female figure in a 1960s dress and gloves, flying through the air astride a Western Electric Bell telephone handset. Her head has been replaced with the head of Karl Marx. A shower of US hundred dollar bills flows out of the receiver's earpiece and mic. In the background is a telephone pole with many wires attached to it, slicing chords through the blue sky.
A female figure in a 1960s dress and gloves, flying through the air astride a Western Electric Bell telephone handset. Her head has been replaced with the head of Karl Marx. A shower of US hundred dollar bills flows out of the receiver's earpiece and mic. In the background is a telephone pole with many wires attached to it, slicing chords through the blue sky.
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Alberto Cottica
@alberto_cottica@mastodon.green replied  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

@pluralistic Cory, these are really great data points. There is an antecedent: municipal socialism in the 19th century in parts of Europe, including my native Emilia Romagna, in Italy. There it was not (always) coops, but City Halls building up substantial investments, including utilities (energy, water, waste...) and transit. Eventually some of those companies federated to serve millions of people.

Something for your Green New Deal world?

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Vesna Manojlović
@becha@social.v.st replied  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

@alberto_cottica @pluralistic alternative networks, federated networks, coops as ISPs & wireless mesh network community providers are beloved by their members & users - here’s an (oldish) RFC describing them : https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7962.html

#guifi #FreiFunk #mesh #coop

Plus I’m plugging in my project to build #LikaNet near #LikaLodge with @battlemesh , a commons “ISP” 2b beloved ;)

https://wiki.techinc.nl/User:Becha/Lika/ProjekatPovezanoPolje

Cc @APC @irtf

RFC 7962: Alternative Network Deployments: Taxonomy, Characterization, Technologies, and Architectures

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wobah
@wobah@piaille.fr replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

@pluralistic It must be so infuriating for the customers/prisoners of those reckless ISPs... Also what incredible contrast with some european countries. Several countries, including France where I live, have reached 90+% fiber coverage ; and yes, that's the future. So much so that the copper network will be shut down in less than 3 years in my mostly rural area

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Istar Eldritch
@istar@tilde.zone replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

@pluralistic have not read the article yet. But I'm pretty happy with @aaisp

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Adrian Segar
@ASegar@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

@pluralistic Actually, there are a few good 'uns. For years, we had to make do with expensive, slow DSL. Our new ISP is DVFiber, a non-profit municipal organization that provides high-quality Internet to 24 communities in southeastern Vermont. No other ISP would ever consider stringing fiber up the dirt road to our rural home.

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