Bill Virgin: Tacoma must be careful not to be left behind in digital high-speed dust

[unhappycamper]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/03/30/3124091/tacoma-must-be-careful-not-to.html?sp=/99/261/

Bill Virgin: Tacoma must be careful not to be left behind in digital high-speed dust
March 30, 2014

It may be hard to recall now just what a big deal Tacoma’s Click Network was when it was rolled out in 1997. It wasn’t just the opportunity for the public to have a competitive alternative to the incumbent cable TV company. It was a source of civic pride, a nationally mentioned anecdote that vaulted Tacoma into the conversation about technologically progressive cities. Maybe even better, it was something Seattle didn’t have. Tacoma would seize some of the tech-sector’s sizzle as the “Wired City.”

But 17 years is a near eternity in modern telecommunications — that term itself is a vestige of another age. Some context is useful. When the fiber-optic light was turned on for public use on Click, Amazon was just 3 years old. So was Facebook. Google was a year away.

It’s been a long time since anyone used “the Wired City” in any context, even ironic about Tacoma, the moniker proving to have a short shelf life. Tacoma didn’t become a tech hub because of its high-speed fiber-optic network for data services. While Click did bring some financial benefits to consumers of cable TV services, the competitive landscape is so much broader today, with the high-speed Internet services offered by Click and Comcast helping to cannibalize their own cable TV businesses. And that term high-speed is now relative, under threat not only from faster speeds offered elsewhere but from technology promising the same cord-cutting hitting the cable TV business.

Click Network still uses an exclamation point in its logo and its official material. A very large question mark, and a quantity of them, might be the more appropriate form of punctuation.

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@*&%T* Comcast heah.

[KoKo]

1. Sad about Tacoma. Article was a bit confusing as to why their network wasn't

"competitive." but, hate to see these "local efforts" go down for lack of funding. When the Big One's come in the rates usually increase substantially after the Initial Teaser rate.

Hope they find a way to make it or take a buy out since they put 17 years into it.