Despite best efforts by Charter Communications (including telling locals earlier this week that a coax network is more reliable than fiber to the home), 62 percent of Opelika, Alabama residents have voted to build a fiber to the home network.The $33 million fiber network will be funded with revenue bonds, using a core fiber ring from the local power utility as its heart — with some services and support layered on top by local competitor Knology. Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller called out Charter when announcing results:”It s a great day for Opelika. It s a great day for our future. It s a terrible day for Charter,” Fuller said. “We all worked very hard on this,” Fuller said. We heard the cry of our citizens about competition for Charter and know the importance of this to economic development that this fiber and high speed Internet will provide as well as the value of improving our existing smart grid system.” “We still don t have any plans to control anybody s coffee pot,” joked FullerOf course if history is anything to go by, this is usually the part where the local incumbent, after being semi-responsible for the community effort due to neglected upgrades and poor service, engages in an expensive campaign to bog down the community fiber build via a series of endless lawsuits. Then when the project struggles, the incumbent usually uses said failure as “proof” that all community broadband efforts end in failure.
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