Slashdot Mirror
CenturyLink Takes $3B In Subsidies For Building Out Rural Broadband
New submitter club77er writes with a link to a DSL Reports article outlining some hefty subsidies (about $3 billion, all told) that CenturyLink has signed up to receive, in exchange for expanding its coverage to areas considered underserved: According to the CenturyLink announcement, the telco will take $500 million a year for six years from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s Connect America Fund (CAF). In exchange, it will expand broadband to approximately 1.2 million rural households and businesses in 33 states. While the FCC now defines broadband as 25 Mbps down, these subsidies require that the deployed services be able to provide speeds of at least 10 Mbps down.
In January we got Broadband! A whopping 5Mbps. It was amazing. We loved it.
Then the FCC took away our Broadband. They changed the definition to 25Mbps so now we have a paltry 5Mbps! Horrible.
Not.
If they take our money to build the line, they are acting as an agent of the state (so, yes we can say the government put in the line) and they must lease it out at reasonable rates.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Your region doesn't get math education subsidies, either, does it?
It's $34 a month per subscriber. Probably not too bad considering the amount of network infrastructure they'll need to build and maintain.
Century link will collect fed funds for shit service that is up to stated speeds.
Silence is a state of mime.
I'm mad because in ten years they still won't have delivered, will have spent the bulk of the money on executive bonuses and won't get punished. Keep the subsidies, make em pay it back with interest if they're so much as a smidge off
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Instead of giving Century Link 3 billion dollars to build the infrastructure and then have a monopoly where they can overcharge the customer, let's take that 3 billion and have the government build the infrastructure. Then we let any company who want so use it do so for a small fee. Then not only do we have infrastructure, but we also have competition and at least a small income from the lines, which is better for everyone.
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
That works out to just over $2,000 per subscriber ($3B/1.2M subscribers)...
I get $2,500 per subscriber. (dc agrees with me.)
I consider an extra 25% as a bit more than "just over".
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Bahahahahahahaha. You think they could run fiber for 2k per house??? You are talking existing properties here with existing roads, drainage, sewerage, water pipes, and electricity. Half of these wont be mapped correctly and you are expecting them to be able to trench in fiber and connect the houses for 2k per connection? You would struggle to get that sort of costing per house when you are building a subdivision and you amortise the earthworks cost across multiple services.
How much do you think it would cost just to cross a road with a cable? Assuming you can get away with a directional drill or a vac excavator and not have to cut the road way surface.
And lets not even could the cost of foot paths, driveways, gardens and everything else this will chew up.
Maybe just maybe you could sling the fiber from existing power poles to keep you costs down. But even then you wont get under 2k.
Wait, let me see if I got this right. So we in the shape of the Federal government are actually paying for a bunch of home schoolers and flat earthers to crap all over the Internet more conveniently?
Can't we save some money and just provide connectivity to Breitbart and Red State and keep these people out of other comment sections?
It depends on how rural they're expected to go. It's not exactly cheap to upgrade infrastructure that's probably PTSN or at most ISDN, and service providers have not done so because it will literally cost them more to do the install than they can guarantee they'll make back out of it. There's still a lot of copper backbone out there, with the associated problems that old copper has with corrosion and other line degredation that can be worked around with voice (anyone remember pair gain?) but will play havoc on any sort of high-speed data.
I don't think that those that live in rural areas don't deserve to have Internet access, but everywhere we live we make trade-offs. I have to put up with high property costs (relatively speaking), pollution in several forms, traffic, restrictions on the kinds of things I'm allowed to do on my property and in the surrounding area, and being forced to interact with others. On the other hand I get inexpensive shopping, relatively short travel distances, numerous entertainment options, and access to infrastructure and utilities that require a certain minimum density to have.
Those that live in rural areas generally have more peace and quiet, less traffic, less pollution, fewer rules on property use and other activities, and lower property costs, but have longer drives, more expensive shopping, more expensive or nonexistent utilities or infrastructure, and less in the way of entertainment choices. Them's the breaks. That's also why we have taxes that pay for infrastructure in rural areas, like roads, power distribution (yes, the electrification of rural America was subsidized), telephone, mail, and depending on the area sanitation and water. Even with those subsidies there will still be a dearth of some services though.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
They don't have to get the cost under $2K, that $2K/household is the SUBSIDY, it is designed to encourage the investment and speed up the return on investment for the cable company/ISP... Who will still charge every customer the same amount, with or without subsidy on their install.
Without this money, rural customers would be forced to pay the actual cost of their service...
Ken
They tried that, but people kept stealing the wires out of the trailer park and selling it to buy meth and ammo.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Firstly, effectively calling me a liar marks you as a cad.
Secondly, you assert that pretty much everything I consume is heavily subsidized. To the point where I am getting a heck of a deal, receiving goods and services that exceed in value and cost what I pay for them. As I am an average joe, most of the country must be getting the same benefit. My question is, where the hell is all the money coming from to pay the difference?
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
There are techbro libertarians around here who are still pissed that the federal government built the interstate highway system so that moochers can drive their cars across the country. So don't be surprised about this being late Sunday night Slashdot front page fodder.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Man complaining about "the Soviet Left Coast" plans to retire comfortably collecting Social Security, using Medicare and sucking off the government teat.
Not shocked.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Looks like Quest^W Qwest^W CenturyLink is just going for Part Two of the original hit production: Broadband Subsidy Scam.
But don't worry if you're enjoying the show so far -- I have no doubt there will be a Part Three in 10 years or so.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
The problem is the cost per item. This is more than just a subsidy, it's simply paying for getting the entire job done and if that were the case, why doesn't the government just contract that job out. These companies have gotten the same subsidies over and over again, even avoided taxes since the 90's for that exact promise.
There are a few facts:
- Even in rural areas, people tend to cluster together, you can easily get 100 houses/living spaces in a small area
- There is already fiber in lots of places with inhabitants due to regular phone lines or even DSL/ISDN (which even in rural areas no longer use switchboards or trunks, they are switched onto a packet line, generally fiber) and both lit and dark fiber strung in the past four decades. Even so, existing copper can in most cases easily maintain the speeds being requested.
- Most DSL/ISDN lines can be easily upgraded with software and minor hardware to comply with these requests.
- It is relatively cheap to tap a fiber from a pole even for a (very) long run. I once lived in such place, a 2.5 mile run from the nearest fiber on existing electric/phone poles would've cost me only $15k including installation, hardware and (I assume) profits for the installer and that was for a 1Gbps fiber.
- Single houses in the middle of nowhere will still not get anything because the company will not find them profitable
- These companies often only provide service 'to the pole' (not to the meter/modem/termination point as most people assume). Most/all utilities have this provision, even in a city, you might not notice unless you have to fix something (or if it's already buried) but when you do then you can go and climb the (live) pole yourself or hire someone to do it. The rest (a 20-200ft run depending on property layout) the customer still has to pay for during installation.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Texas ranks in or near the bottom 20% in the nation in education and access to health care, and its poverty level puts in 46th (out of 50), in between Arkansas and Alabama. It has the highest uninsured rate in the nation. It leads all other states in the number of executions of innocent people. Texas has the highest percentage of children who don't have any access to health care.
http://educationblog.dallasnew...
http://www.texasobserver.org/t...
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/0...
http://watchdogblog.dallasnews...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/...
Among Texas' other poor rankings are 50th for the EPA's toxic exposure score, 47th for total toxic chemicals released into waterways, 46th for cancer-causing chemicals released, 45th for developmental toxins released, and 49th for reproductive toxins released. So, when you say "diverse ecosystems" I assume you mean there are some places you can live and get cancer and some places you just cannot live.
Texas ranks 50th (out of 50) for greenhouse emissions.
In summary, poverty, poorly educated people, sick kids and an environment disaster not to mention the climate that you mention putting Texas near the bottom of the comfort index rankings do not add up to Texas being a "nice place to live". The highly-touted "Texas Miracle" is a lie.
And here are some unretouched photos of people Texas has elected governor:
http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sit...
http://www.highwaygirl.com/hwg...
And the current governor believes a U.S. military exercise in the region is really an all-out invasion by Obama and the US government to take over Texas. Or, he just says that to pander to his pig-ignorant electorate.
I'm sorry friend, but Texas is a shit-hole. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who lives there. In Jesus' name.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Secondly, you assert that pretty much everything I consume is heavily subsidized. To the point where I am getting a heck of a deal, receiving goods and services that exceed in value and cost what I pay for them. As I am an average joe, most of the country must be getting the same benefit. My question is, where the hell is all the money coming from to pay the difference?
He's right, you are getting a heck of a deal. As to the question of where the money is coming from: We're borrowing the money. Same as we have been for the past 20 years.
At some point, it will be time to pay the piper. The sooner we face the reality, the easier it will be. If we wait for the next financial crisis, it could be Greece all over again.
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
No, you'll probably get back much more.
I love how the techbro libertarians exaggerate the amount of money "the parasites" have taken from them without ever acknowledging the benefits they have enjoyed, and the privilege they have gained from those benefits. They all believe they earned every cent from their natural talent and the sweat of their own brow.
Instead of driving to work in the morning, they probably hack their way through the jungle with a machete.
You are welcome on my lawn.