Where Is The Broadband?

gouldtj writes "First Monday is running an article in its current issue entitled: The many paradoxes of broadband. It discusses some of the issues and ideas behind broadband, but seems to focus on: Where is it? There is also a really nice discussion on the telecom industry in general, along with the .com boom."

Comments

How many of us take it for granted?

[vacaboca]

The points are thought-provoking - specifically along the lines of how much we that have broadband connectivity take it for granted? It is so easy to assume that since I've had residential broadband access for about 10 years, it *must* be a normal thing for everyone else by now.

It's almost as if there's a virtual Third World of 'net access within our country - those oppressed by dial-up-only access. Is it in fact a governmental responsibility to bring it to everyone?

Re:How many of us take it for granted?

[squarooticus]

Is there a greater-good benefit,

I don't ever buy these arguments. If I want something, I'll pay for it voluntarily. Co-ops are a good example of a voluntary "greater-good" financing scheme.

or a direct benefit to the "haves" in the situation (us!), for everyone to have access?

Again, if I want something, I'll pay for it. I simply expect others to do the same. If there is truly any benefit (all of which can ultimately be expressed by monetary profit) to subsidizing broadband to the sticks, then some private company will step up to provide it. If not, then I don't want the money taken from my pocket at the point of a gun to pay for something that might theoretically provide me with some hypothetical benefit.

Re:How many of us take it for granted?

[OECD]

The thing that surprised me about broadband is that it is not just "more stuff faster"; it allows you to work in a completely different way. E.g., I used to make backups of all the share/freeware I downloaded. Now I toss them when I'm done, because it would take me longer to find it in my disc catalog than to find the newest version on the net.

The always-on connectivity is at least as important as the speed. In fact, if I had to choose between the two, I'd probably drop the speed first.

Broadband

[J3M]

Isn't really needed by most people. Most people only use the net for email and some shopping. Paying $40 - $50 a month so your email gets sent a lot faster isn't very cost effective. Course us geeks like it, but we're the minority.

Connected to my computer?

[cybermace5]

Honestly, the broadband sitution is not all that bad. You really can get broadband in nearly all semi-populated areas. Everyone whines that it's not everywhere, but this is a growing market...how long did it take before everyone had a telephone? And just recently, cell phone coverage (which is approaching ubiquitous at this point).

Hate to crush your fantasy, but it takes time to hook up wires, and it costs money to run them. It'll happen, and it's actually doing OK considering the massive land area we have to service in the U.S.

Where is it?

[mopslik]

Most folks I talk to are still turned off by the price. While $40/mo for broadband certainly doesn't bankrupt me, it may still not be as attractive as many of the "$15/mo 56K access" deals that compete with it.

Where's the content?

[Rinikusu]

I've had broadband for 4 years. I've paid, dutifully, each month, for broadband which I thought I needed. And last month, I killed my cable modem. Why?

Where's the content that requires it?

I got tired of downloading pr0n from newsgroups. I don't warez or play games. I don't download movies, music, or anything. Other than the occasional Linux distro download, there's really no reason for broadband. (and if you think about it, if I download 2 linux distros a year, I would save a hell of a lot of money just by buying the boxed set rather than forking out the $40/month I pay for cable) Where's the streaming movies? Where's the free music (not "pirated", but legitimate)? Where's the *value*? As far as I'm concerned, once I realized that copyright violation was still copyright violation and "wrong", I had nothing left that I would need broadband for. If I'm just hitting ebay, slashdot, and a few other news sites, then really, what's the point of broadband?

Re:I've got it

[Rocketboy]

I could have "broadband", if I were interested in satellite. Or ISDN. That's it, those are my options. Heck, I can't even get digital cable...

The telecom industry's claim that broadband is available to 80% of the US population is only true if you count satellite and ISDN, neither of which I count as really being "broadband". The owner of our company has ISDN at home and I approve the bills: 128K ISDN here costs $200 per month. Satellite pushes $100 per month. Quasi-broadband isn't worth that much to me.

Am I rural? I never thought so, but then again I could be wrong. I live in the suburbs of a small city of about 45,000, less than 200 meters from the closest phone company remote switch (which is optical fiber. Had a lovely conversation with the installer there last summer.) A couple of years ago the local phone co. (Verizon) announced with much fanfare that this town was to be a showcase of broadband in our state, one of the first three communities to be pervasively wired. Never happened and every time I ask they say, maybe in six months.

Comcast came by this summer and ran new backbone cable through everyone's back yards, but never came back to run the lines to the houses (a subdivision of about 100 homes.) Two months ago they sent people around with literature, trying to get people to sign up for digital cable and broadband. They swore up and down it was available that day. Just try to actually sign up, though: not available, maybe will be by the end of the year. Or maybe not.

Call me cranky but I'm not willing to move to a large city for the convenience of broadband internet connections. At this point I'm so disgusted over casually broken promises that I don't care if they ever wire the place. Screw 'em.

Rocketboy