At Tuesday night’s North Beacon Hill Council meeting, Robert Kangas  of UPTUN (Upping Technology for Underserved Neighbors) was there was there to discuss the current state of broadband on Beacon Hill. There was no projector, so he was unable to do the originally-planned presentation on the current situation and the reasons it is so hard to upgrade equipment on the Hill. 

Since then, Kangas has released the presentation online as a PDF. Even without the narration and discussion, it’s worth reading if you wonder why your house is still stuck with 1.5 Mbps DSL. Here it is.

According to UPTUN, Seattle’s permitting process for installing new broadband cabinets is slower and more restrictive than that of other cities.  Additionally, “in order to get a fiber cabinet approved, 60% of the households in a 300 foot radius of the site have to say yes. People who don’t speak up are counted as no votes. Contacting everyone is extremely difficult since lots of people will never respond.”

There is a meeting (see our earlier post) at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Ave. S., at 6 p.m. on September 20 to discuss this issue.