• db2@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    4 months ago

    In the early 2000s iirc they were given billions to build out rural broadband. They kept it. Rural broadband still doesn’t exist to speak of.

    • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      And in the late 2000’s. And again a few years later. And as of last year they, the FCC is once again throwing money at them without any real oversight. I worked for a ISP in 2010 and we couldn’t get any of the money because a bank had first lean on the company USDA demanded that before any money could be approved. AT&T got money for our area and their footprint shrank the next year when they cut off dial-up customers in the area.

    • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      We did the same for urban fiber. It’s never materialized, either. And, the USDA has been providing funding and loans for rural broadband for quite awhile.

      • db2@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        It’s almost like the foxes are running the hen house, as the old saying goes.

      • sunzu@kbin.run
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        American taxpayer is always paying for major CapEx for most industries then turn around and price gouge us.

        Most amercians see to be fine with it since they live in a free market economy where private sector funds investment.

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        I’ve read there’s lots of “dark” fiber in cities, but I don’t know if it’s true. I do know that AT&T has a fiber line that runs through my neighborhood, yet I can’t get fiber internet. Really stupid.

        • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          I do know that AT&T has a fiber line that runs through my neighborhood, yet I can’t get fiber internet

          The local exchange carriers (LECs) typically change from plain olds telephone system (POTS) to fiber at the neighborhood level. Coax carriers also.

          Fiber to the neighborhood is already there. It’s not hard to run a line across a neighborhood to connect whatever on either side.

          The difficult part is getting from a neighborhood connection to each individual home. It’s a flower pot install on each property, all connected together underground, and it can’t fuck with gas, water, sewer, etc.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 months ago

            It’s also not hard to use that fibre connection to the neighbourhood to provide DSL. That’s precisely what it’s made for: Use that copper last mile and have whatever on the upstream side. And there’s plenty of DSL hardware that doubles as POTS and/or ISDN hardware, you can upgrade the whole neighbourhood to “DSL available” by installing such a thing, connecting all the lines to it, and then remotely activating DSL when people sign up.

            Over here they’re actually moving away from that, opting for voip instead and using DSL over the whole frequency spectrum.

            • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              3 months ago

              As soon as those decades old and severely degraded copper lines are replaced in all of those old neighborhoods where fiber is slowest to roll out, DSL can provide a higher cost and subpar service on a deprecated standard. That’s exactly what we need with a surplus of capacity on modern hardware already deployed in the field.

              We’ll all have broadband in no time if they’d just listen to you.