Internet and cable problems to be discussed at UPTUN meeting 3/7

City Councilmember Bruce Harrell is one of the panelists at next week's UPTUN meeting at Beacon Lutheran Church. Photo courtesy of Seattle City Council.
Next Monday, March 7, UPTUN (Upgrading Technology for Underserved Neighbors) holds their quarterly meeting on Beacon Hill, “Nightmares and Opportunities: Broadstripe and City Underserving Neighbors.” UPTUN is a group of Seattle neighbors who are working on improving internet and cable service in underserved areas such as Beacon Hill, the Central District, Leschi, and parts of Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, and Pioneer Square.

Panelists at the meeting will include Bruce Harrell, Seattle City Council; Bill Schrier, Chief Technology Officer, City of Seattle; and Henry W. McGee, Jr., Seattle University School of Law. Neighbors in underserved neighborhoods are urged to attend, and the public is welcome. Citizens will be able to submit concerns during the meeting as well as on the UPTUN website.

The meeting is on Monday, March 7, from 7 until 8:30 p.m. at Beacon Lutheran Church, 1720 South Forest Street.

8 thoughts on “Internet and cable problems to be discussed at UPTUN meeting 3/7”

  1. Why are Qwest and Comcast apparently off the hook? While they are unquestionably better than Broadstripe, that’s not saying much.

    This whole city has lousy, expensive broadband coverage that is nowhere near what is advertised by the various companies.

  2. Comcast isn’t off the hook. Broadstripe may seem like the group’s main focus, but I am also a former Qwest customer. After years of being able to get no more than 1.5 megabit, I switched service providers. The situation seems to be bad almost everywhere.

    You should come to the meeting and make your opinion known too. Or at least comment here and add your story into the mix. http://uptun.org/2011/02/share-your-broadstripe-stories/ (and yeah, I know… it says broadstripe). I’ve been trying to get the webmaster to fix that. 🙂

  3. Stupid MDM/Broadstripe. After going in person to return my cable equipment and cancel my service at Jackson and… 23rd? they kept sending me bills for MONTHS afterwards.

    And they do anti-P2P protocol traffic shaping. Bastards.

  4. I live in Pioneer Square and my only options are also Broadstripe and Qwest — it’s a really hard choice, and they’re both really bad.

  5. Kevin and Sarah, we encourage you to join us for our March 7th meeting where we will have a member of Seattle’s City Council and Seattle’s Chief Technology Officer attend. We are actively advocating for communications infrastructure improvements and need all of the support we can get. If more of us speak up then the city is more likely to take action. Hope to see you there!

  6. I just moved into the neighborhood and was very disappionted to learn that neither Comcast nor Qwest could offer service at my location in Beacon Hill. I later learned that my neighbors accross the street (Beacon Ave S.) are able to receive Comcast.

    I wrote to Tony Perez, as suggested on the UPTUN site. Below is his response.


    Thanks for writing to me about this. I am aware of the meeting on Monday and plan to attend.

    As to your Internet choices I am surprised that Qwest is not available to you at the new location. You might want to double check with them. Comcast is free to submit a request for a franchise to serve your area. To date they have not done so and appear unwilling to compete head to head with Broadstripe. As for Qwest they do not need our authority to provide Internet service so I am puzzled as to why they told you to contact us.

    The City is not doing anything to prevent ISPs from doing in business in your area. These are market decisions being made by private companies. I guess it is easier to blame the City rather than to tell you that they can’t or won’t make the necessary investment.

    I will attend tonight’s meeting, and I hope to broaden my understanding of the regulations made by the city. The Franchise Agreement Map seems to conflict with Tony’s response, but this is quite possibly a misunderstanding on my part.

  7. In a city that has made it’s mark with Tecnology/ Microsoft,etc, you would think we would have a universal wireless for the whole city…Minneapolis does! Why is it that this high tech town is so low tech when it comes to using our tech stuff?

  8. @Mary, please show up to the meeting tonight. You aren’t alone, and a strong showing will certainly show the broadband providers that there is a strong demand for change and improvement.

    Near the end of the meeting, we’re going to be talking next steps and we certainly welcome opinions on where we should go next. Thanks!

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