Vice: Striking Telecom Workers Are Building a Community-Owned ISP
Thanks to Ariana Levinson for sending us this. She can be reached via email at a.levinson@louisville.edu
By KARL BODE
For more than four years, New York City area unionized employees of Charter Communications have been on strike, waiting for the company to budge in contract negotiations. In their free time, they’ve been building a worker-owned ISP of their own, with a focus on expanding affordable access during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dubbed People’s Choice Communications, the ISP is part of a growing trend of local communities building their own broadband networks. Frustrated by slow speeds, high prices, and spotty coverage, more than 750 towns and cities have built some type of locally-owned and operated broadband network, a trend that’s accelerating during the pandemic.