Municipal cable TV and broadband systems have been more prone to failure than success, as North Carolina residents have found recently. Still, the temptation must be awfully strong or the service must be awfully bad because towns keep moving into the space. Most recently, Opelika City, Ala. will have a public hearing Aug. 3 to decide whether to move forward creating its own cable TV and high-speed Internet services company.
The cost for such a system is estimated at between $25 million and $40 million and would be part of the city's smart grid application, according to Mayor Gary Fuller, in a story written in the Opelika-Auburn News. Therein lies another problem; the smart grid and all its nuances. Recent reports are that without control the smart grid can become a fiber Big Brother.
"The smart grid would allow the city to control certain appliances like hot water hearings and air conditioners, lowering electric bills for consumers," the mayor said. It would also run on a new fiber-to-the-home network on which the city would run the cable system, making service available to everyone in town in about two years.
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