While the COVID-19 pandemic spurred significant progress in expanding rural home internet access, these gains are proving temporary as resources dwindle.
It is unreasonable for us to subsidize building internet out to bumfuck Alaska - land there is so cheap because you’re so far from a service center. With the exceptions of reservations (which is the only place a lot of natives can afford to live) we should stop trying to subsidize these remote areas.
If there’s an economic reason for a community to exist then it can afford to bring in internet themselves.
The thing is, you are already subsidizing it. The US government has already paid for them to have access, ISPs just took the money and never did the job.
If you bought and paid for a car, and you never actually received it, I imagine you would not be happy if someone told you “cars are unsustainable anyway”, and “if you had an economic reason to own a car, you should build your own”.
The majority of people in the USA live in these “rural” areas. Full on subdivisions get built with no Internet sometimes out in the rural parts of the USA. The ISPs that have monopolized internet access, don’t care about running new access because it cuts into their profits. It’s easier to just raise the prices on the existing lines, and keep pocketing the free subsidized money they get from the gov.
Fuck whoever is letting people build subdivisions in the middle of nowhere and fuck people who buy a house in the middle of nowhere with an expectation to have full access to services like you’re in a city.
Lastly, fuck ISP monopolies, let’s solve that problem first and break comcast et all up and roll back laws that block municipal internet services.
But one thing you said “running new access because it cuts into their profits” that’s sort of my point. These rural lines won’t pay for themselves, the only way they’ll be built is if a rich individual commissions it privately or if other people subsidize it. Satellite internet is the right solution for really rural areas. It isn’t worth it to build 30 miles of infrastructure for five homes - it isn’t even worth it for us to pave those roads. Rural communities are “cheap” because everyone else subsidizes them.
It is unreasonable for us to subsidize building internet out to bumfuck Alaska - land there is so cheap because you’re so far from a service center. With the exceptions of reservations (which is the only place a lot of natives can afford to live) we should stop trying to subsidize these remote areas.
If there’s an economic reason for a community to exist then it can afford to bring in internet themselves.
The thing is, you are already subsidizing it. The US government has already paid for them to have access, ISPs just took the money and never did the job.
If you bought and paid for a car, and you never actually received it, I imagine you would not be happy if someone told you “cars are unsustainable anyway”, and “if you had an economic reason to own a car, you should build your own”.
Oh yea, we should absolutely claw back the money those companies pocketed… but we should also stop investing so much money in rural access.
The majority of people in the USA live in these “rural” areas. Full on subdivisions get built with no Internet sometimes out in the rural parts of the USA. The ISPs that have monopolized internet access, don’t care about running new access because it cuts into their profits. It’s easier to just raise the prices on the existing lines, and keep pocketing the free subsidized money they get from the gov.
Fuck whoever is letting people build subdivisions in the middle of nowhere and fuck people who buy a house in the middle of nowhere with an expectation to have full access to services like you’re in a city.
Lastly, fuck ISP monopolies, let’s solve that problem first and break comcast et all up and roll back laws that block municipal internet services.
But one thing you said “running new access because it cuts into their profits” that’s sort of my point. These rural lines won’t pay for themselves, the only way they’ll be built is if a rich individual commissions it privately or if other people subsidize it. Satellite internet is the right solution for really rural areas. It isn’t worth it to build 30 miles of infrastructure for five homes - it isn’t even worth it for us to pave those roads. Rural communities are “cheap” because everyone else subsidizes them.