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I don't think that internet connectivity alone is enough. I live in Chattanooga TN where we've had consumer gigabit fiber for the better part of a decade (and

I don't think that internet connectivity alone is enough. I live in Chattanooga TN where we've had consumer gigabit fiber for the better part of a decade (and 10GB for a while now) and the tech scene is good but not amazing (particularly where startups are concerned). > The barrier to entry of a high tech job sector is primarily internet connectivity. You can't run a web server out of your house if your ISP doesn't allow it.. or if the top speed is 3Mbps. In my experience, after a certain point, most tech businesses don't really need better connectivity; most of the heavy lifting is done in the cloud these days.

ldoughty 7y ago
Indeed! After reliable uncapped/high-capped 50Mbps speeds are available, with decent upload speeds, the speed increases are not as important from a business stance. However, 24 million Americans do not have "broadband" access as of 2018[0]. Rural USA is 60 million americans[1]. It is _my guess_ that nearly all of these 24 million Americans without broadband are almost entirely rural, since they are the lowest priority for ISPs (too expensive per customer)... and this is 97% of the USA land mass[2] which is why ISPs avoid them (infrastructure too expensive). So when people say tech startups can be anywhere... in reality, only 3-4% of the US land mass is reliably covered with high speed data, and those people must be happy to live in homes on ~1 acre or less lots (typical maximum for suburbs). Running a server from home was not the best example, perhaps nowadays "reliable video calls with screen sharing" is a better metric for reliable, consistent, moderate bandwidth service. [0]: https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2018-broadband-deployment-report https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progr... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_areas_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_areas_in_the_United_Stat... [2]: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-210.html https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-210...

ldoughty 7y ago

Indeed! After reliable uncapped/high-capped 50Mbps speeds are available, with decent upload speeds, the speed increases are not as important from a business stance. However, 24 million Americans do not have "broadband" access as of 2018[0]. Rural USA is 60 million americans[1]. It is _my guess_ that nearly all of these 24 million Americans without broadband are almost entirely rural, since they are the lowest priority for ISPs (too expensive per customer)... and this is 97% of the USA land mass[2] which is why ISPs avoid them (infrastructure too expensive). So when people say tech startups can be anywhere... in reality, only 3-4% of the US land mass is reliably covered with high speed data, and those people must be happy to live in homes on ~1 acre or less lots (typical maximum for suburbs). Running a server from home was not the best example, perhaps nowadays "reliable video calls with screen sharing" is a better metric for reliable, consistent, moderate bandwidth service. [0]: https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2018-broadband-deployment-report https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progr... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_areas_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_areas_in_the_United_Stat... [2]: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-210.html https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-210...