Biden to bolster boondocks broadband with a billion bonus bucks (barely) The Biden administration is ready to divvy up nearly $700 million more in funding for rural broadband expansion, with the US Department of Agriculture taking the helm to disburse the cash. The USDA said Monday it will distribute $667 million (£523 million) in 37 grants and loans to ISPs across 22 states and the Marshall …
There are some poor and off the beaten track parts of CA you know. Not everything is like the bright lights of Sunset Bvld. I have stayed in the far NE of the state in 2019 and the internet was as good as getting a 5G signal at home ... ie impossible unless I'm sitting on the roof.
The idea that rural users need 100Mbps seems bizarre to me. What most rural users need from the government is access to essential services -- emergency communication and warnings, weather, tax filing, medical information and the like. I think that most of the people pushing high speed access everywhere and always are folks who want to extend the Internet of Garbage (IoG) to everyone. And they want someone else to pay for it. I would want that too if I were a IoG provider.
I think it would probably be a lot more cost effective for the governments to spend some money to make sure that essential services are not bandwidth hogs then spend a lot less than $700,000,000 dollars to try to get, say 1 Mbps, (I think that's about the maximum ancient copper wire systems can do even with modern technology) to as many folks as possible. The relatively few users who actually need more can probably pay for satellite. And if the IoG folks want 100Mbps to everyone, no problem -- they can write a (very large) check.
On top of which there is the reality that communications providers in the US seem to be an infinite money sink. For decades, they have been promising rural broadband, taking money for rural broadband, and largely failing to deliver rural broadband. BTW, I don't think this situation is limited to the US.
Nothing tinfoil hat about it.
All animals are easier to control when they are fenced in. Even better when they willfully desire to live within the fencing.
It is the feral humans, living in rural areas that worry the government. They might just go have some independent thinking and cause problems.
I think you are spot on. 'Essential services' don't take that much bandwidth. And 4k streaming is not 'essential'. Although it will be used to sell the idea to the masses.
From the government's point of view... Being able to track & monitor everything...well that does require bandwidth. Just a wee bit of self-serving interest there.
From big tech's point of view...Ads, ads, and more ads for everybody! Dream ads take lots of bandwidth: "Leela: Didn't you have ad's in the 20th century? Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!"
> to try to get, say 1 Mbps, (I think that's about the maximum ancient copper wire systems can do even with modern technology)
Have you tried Copper recently? I'm on a legacy CCTV/CableTV line, installed to sell HBO and the Playboy channel. The main lines are over 20 years old, some of the drops are from 1989. Until last year it was throttled to 25/50X10Mbps, more at insane prices. This was often "OK" but then I started on 300 (and 110) dial-up and scads of 10Mbps Ethernet.
Or did you mean to type "ADSL"?
Last year the new (3rd this decade) incumbent telephone operator started dragging fiber around the peninsula. Spectrum turned-off the throttles-- said the new deal is 100Mbps but in fact Thursday at dinner-time I get from Ookla : Download Mbps 374.23 Upload Mbps 11.82. It can hit 90Mbps on movie evening but is >250Mbps more often than not. I just got 148MB (1184Mb) in 4 seconds, from a hobbyist (not data-monster) server.
This is a poor neighborhood and a greedy cable company. Not an advanced technology demonstrator. Not even name-brand boxes.
And yes: we've had trouble, I've opened most of the cable connections, it's all-metal and a mile+ long. (Overhead TV cable is really an iron core for strength lightly copper-plated for signal.)
Where I'm at, the fiber pipe is in the ground, those huge rolls of orange pipe are everywhere... we're told fiber to the premises will arrive in about two months. A welcome competitor, the current ISP is the only game on this side of town, and they are not very good.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
