Rural Broadband to Replace POTS As Beneficiary of US Gov't Subsidies

IDG reports that "The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to overhaul a decades-old system of telephone subsidies in rural areas, with the funding refocused on broadband deployment. The FCC's vote Thursday would transition the Universal Service Fund's (USF's) high-cost program, now subsidizing voice service, to a new Connect America Fund focused on broadband deployment to areas that don't yet have service. The FCC will cap the broadband fund at $4.5 billion a year, the current budget of the USF high-cost program, funded by a tax on telephone bills." That cap, says Reuters, is "the first budget constraint ever imposed on the program."

Comments

Re:Make broadband a tariffed, regulated utility

[khallow]

I live in the countryside well outside a small city (population about 100,000 including surrounding countryside), and have 100/10 internet. This internet service costs me 43euro per month from the regulated local monopoly.

So the solution is to get the Europeans to subsidize US broadband? Sounds good to me!

Re:Natural monopoly is a myth

[Fallingcow]

Just read a fair bit of that article.

Author must be a migrant worker--he's supremely skilled at picking cherries.

Re:One new car

[Pence128]

Then the problem is that your grandparents aren't willing to pay for internet service which is more than just "parts and labor".

Your internet service had a ten thousand dollar sign up fee?