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New US Broadband Projects Get $795 Million In Funding
snydeq writes "The Obama administration has announced nearly $795 million in grants and loans to 66 new broadband projects across the nation. The subsidies — to be doled out by the US NTIA and the US Rural Utilities Service — will bring broadband service to 685,000 businesses, 900 health-care facilities, and 2,400 schools, according to officials. The NTIA will award $404 million to 29 projects, and the grants will finance 6,000 miles of new fiber-optic lines. Most of the money will finance middle-mile broadband network projects. The RUS will award $390.9 million, with $163 million in loans and the rest in grants. Most of the RUS money is focused on last-mile broadband projects."
Yeah, like the time you gave them $40/month and all you got was an unlimited internet connection, just like they promised? The audacity of those guys!
Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
>>>you'd have to have multiple runs of cable (impractical and physically destructive)
Yeah because a 50-fiber bundle (1 fiber per cable/internet company) really takes up a lot of room. A whole 2 cm in diameter. /end sarcasm. But seriously: The logical course would to have this 50-fiber bundle run under every city street and owned by the government. Then lease 1 fiber to Comcast, 1 to Cox, 1 to Time-Warner, 1 to GoogleTV, and so on. Then, at last, we would have a pro-choice solution for customers.
As for the Ma Bell Breakup, I saw long distance calls drop from $1.40 when they had a monopoly to just 5 cents (2010 dollars).
The breakup also allowed for a boom in modem development, where you were no longer tied to Bell's approved 300/1200 modems (available for 30 years and never advanced). Instead you could buy experimental ~19k models from Cardinal or Rockwell or whoever. Competition spurred innovation and very rapid progress (from 1200 to 56000 in just ten years).
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
There's nothing I love more than "independents" using quotes to pretend they are "thinking" instead of spouting partisan bullshit.
Or maybe we could get the couple percent of americans who actually have all the money to pay their fair share of taxes. No, that would be unamerican.
A quarter of a billion dollars to rural utilities so Joe Blow in North Dakota can have fibre to the curb, but congress can't manage to pass an unemployment extension that will allow the CHILDREN of over 3 million jobless Americans to EAT tonight. Near term, long term, I don't care... this is NOT where we need to be spending what little funds we have. I'm pretty sure Joe Blow would rather feed his kids tonight and dial up to check his Farmville, than have fibre and starve. Will it create jobs? Sure. How much longer are we going to look 10 years into the future when we have the problem RIGHT NOW?
You can argue in 1996, fixing line quality was the right thing to do. Broadband technologies were still in their infancy, vanishingly few people had them. Most people were on dialup. What would show them the biggest benefit? Fixing the phone lines. That would show an immediate increase, and using a proven technology.
Quoted for truth. People today seem to forget that back in 1996 most of us were still using 14k modems. A few were using 28k, and 56k was still in development.
Upgrading analog telephones to digital telephones to enable 56k speeds was the logical course of action, and would effectively quadruple most users internet connection. That's why Congress allowed the funds to be spent in that area. There was no misappropriation. The money was spent as it was earmarked.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall