Ask Lemmy

I don't have an answer, but wanted to point out: a fake grassroots effort is called astroturfing (due to it being fake grass)

Your goal and your question aren't about fiber, they are about local politics.

Look at how successful campaigns have gone in the past, look at failed campaigns. Find other locals that also want this and share the work. Get together and plan.

I believe in Colorado that Longmont and Fort Collins have had successful muni-fiber votes and are currently operating. They may provide examples of shiny, happy customers.

I don't have any experience doing this, so take everything I say with a grain of salt, but my first step would be to collect information on how similar projects have turned out in the past, in terms of cost and adoption, as well as how much money Comcast is spending to counter this effort and what kinds of services they offer in the area at different price points. Then see if there are any people in the community that agree with you on the deployment of municipal internet who could be convinced to make the effort to assist you with convincing the rest of the community. With that information and those people, organize a canvasing effort, as in go door to door and actually talk to people about their stance on the matter. I would focus on that "locally owned and operated" argument, as well as the fact that if Comcast is spending money trying to prevent this they surely must be expecting to earn even more money from not having any competition in the area, so they can get away with higher prices and worse service.

I waited 8 years for fiber where I live, and I even went door to door telling my whole neighborhood that there was a cheaper, faster alternative to Comcast, and all we had to do was sign up. When it was finally getting it installed, the technician told me that our neighborhood only got fiber because a local criminal organization had bought a couple cherry pickers and was stripping the copper from pole to pole.

Apparently it takes someone stealing the copper repeatedly before the telcos will invest a dime on upgrades.

Maybe tell them about the digestive benefits.

It should be mandatory to reveal in the title which country the article refers to. In this case: [Third World - US]

We fought the same fight here a few years ago to get municipal power. FUD is a powerful adversary, we lost. :(

I freaking love my town's municipal fiber! It's GLORIOUSLY FAST and rock stable, haven't had ONE outage in the past 3 years. Cheaper than the coaxial cable I used to have through spectrum (previously called themselves charter). Coaxial cable is a scam nowadays.

Maybe lean extra hard on the coastal elite big media propaganda. You can't outsmart a moron, maybe out stupid them instead.

Ask those in surrounding towns of what they pay for Comcast and how much it changed after the proposal came through town.

Ask family and friends in other areas what they pay for internet and with who. Compare that data to the municipal offering and watch them get angry as they get confused.

The answer to the 'Taxes might go up' concern is that even if taxes do go up, it will be offset by cheaper broadband rates even for people who don't switch. Comcast right now are operating an effective monopoly; when they lose that, and a presumably cheaper option becomes available, they'll have to adjust their pricing to compete. Even folks who do not intend to switch stand to benefit from this initiative.

Sorry buddy, rural folks cannot be educated and think anything good for society is communism

Maybe try to research cities that successfully pulled it off and emulate tactics they used. See if you can reach out to people who led those campaigns for advice.

I have no experience, something that might work is to talk with groups of people from a hobby or interest group. Try to speak with the leaders prior to understand typical concerns.