4 ms·

I hope that this Corona virus epidemic is going to be the thing that finally pushes broadband expansion to the countryside in Germany...

animalnewbie 7y ago
Starlink I think is built specifically for that so you have a reason to be hopeful
chefkoch 7y ago
As this is nothing you can change by pushing a button in your billing system i wouldn't hold my breath. But how much bandwith does in really need for remote work as a office worker? RDP should work ok over anything better than dial up.
- solstice 7y ago
  I was thinking more about schools switching over to remote education like they currently do in China. I guess that this sort of app and video conferencing system is currently infeasible in the more rural parts of Germany due to lack of bandwidth.
  - moooo99 7y ago
    Its not only the lack of good infrastructure. The schools don't have the necessary skills to maintain these kind of systems and often don't have enough money to outsource
    - ryanmercer 7y ago
      It'll likely never happen in the United States because of what you mention and the fact that NSLP (National School Lunch Program) and the SFSP (Summer Food Service Program) feed a LOT of children. My fiance is a high school teacher and they began preparing online lessons yesterday in the event they need to shut down for 2 weeks but they're also scrambling to figure out how to feed the kids the 2 meals a day a lot of them get and how some of the students are going to do their laundry. A good portion of the students do their laundry at school in coin-operated washers and dryers in the home economics room. In her first class of 30 something students, all but 2 or 3 get fed 2 meals a day by the school via NSLP. Yesterday she was also telling me the school nurse is concerned as many of the students come to her for basic over the counter medicines and feminine products. She's also a track coach and it was cool and wet yesterday, most of the students shwoed up without the provided hoodie/pants and said they didn't want to get them sweaty because then they couldn't wear them to school (implying they had no means to launder them except for at school) so her and the other coaches rounded up all of the stuff that had been left by previous years and she took it all home to wash and mend ripped pockets to bring back for those students. When kids are depending on the school for their meals and basic medical/hygiene needs... I can't see online classes becoming a thing for many of the schools in the country.
      - ryanmercer 7y ago
        You know, after this comment has percolated in my mind a bit it suddenly hit me that 'the stacks' in Ready Player One are much closer to reality than I'd ever expected. Honestly I had no idea this was the situation in high schools until we started dating. I would have been class of 2003 and sure we had some 'poor' students but we only had a handful of immigrant/refugee kids that you'd see getting the free food (we typed our code into a keypad that carried a balance or paid cash, you could always tell who was on a free lunch though because you were restricted to what you could take and everything was a la carte). Her current school also has some serious drug issues which was quite surprising to me. They had to expel some kids for vaping something other than nicotine in the past 2 months, turns out they were vaping something that contained fentanyl (how they got caught, they kept falling asleep in class and were hard to wake), they regularly have bring in drug dogs for both marijuana plant matter and thc vape cartridges, they recently had to remove two students for having sex on grounds and had to turn them over to the police because the male student was filming it with his phone and they were both underage, etc. It would be amazing if we could just let kids attend from home when sick, during adverse weather, during outbreaks (lice, COVID-19, chicken pox) but the stuff she keeps telling me... A school here has at least 2 students confirmed with COVID-19 (Avon, Indiana schools) that decided to close all of the schools this week and it's almost entirely a solid middle class school and even they've had trouble just this school year with some instances of drugs and a senior committed suicide around the holidays which sent a bunch of kids spiraling. I obviously don't know how things are in Europe but I think schools are between a rock and a hard place here in the United States. In many cases teachers may be the only positive attention kids get in person, and the only one that will notice when something is wrong (at her current school and her previous school cutting has been a very big issue). I'm rambling but the state of schools right now deeply concern me. This up and coming generation seems to have far more problems than mine did.
        applecrazy 7y ago
        Holy crap. This made me recognize my privilege and the massive gap in facilities between schools. I never thought it was that bad in some American high schools. I went to a pretty high-performing school where the biggest problems were anxiety and depression, not (this still shocks me) actual hard drugs. Thank you for sharing your SO's experience. It's eye-opening to say the least.
    - solstice 7y ago
      That is true but also kind of my point: The epidemic Europe is facing could be the kind of event that triggers the necessary changes and investments for this to type of development to happen. Given Germany's federal-style education system I'm not holding my breath though...
      - pacamara619 7y ago
        You can call it what it is: a pandemic.

animalnewbie 7y ago

Starlink I think is built specifically for that so you have a reason to be hopeful

chefkoch 7y ago

As this is nothing you can change by pushing a button in your billing system i wouldn't hold my breath. But how much bandwith does in really need for remote work as a office worker? RDP should work ok over anything better than dial up.

solstice 7y ago
I was thinking more about schools switching over to remote education like they currently do in China. I guess that this sort of app and video conferencing system is currently infeasible in the more rural parts of Germany due to lack of bandwidth.
- moooo99 7y ago
  Its not only the lack of good infrastructure. The schools don't have the necessary skills to maintain these kind of systems and often don't have enough money to outsource
  - ryanmercer 7y ago
    It'll likely never happen in the United States because of what you mention and the fact that NSLP (National School Lunch Program) and the SFSP (Summer Food Service Program) feed a LOT of children. My fiance is a high school teacher and they began preparing online lessons yesterday in the event they need to shut down for 2 weeks but they're also scrambling to figure out how to feed the kids the 2 meals a day a lot of them get and how some of the students are going to do their laundry. A good portion of the students do their laundry at school in coin-operated washers and dryers in the home economics room. In her first class of 30 something students, all but 2 or 3 get fed 2 meals a day by the school via NSLP. Yesterday she was also telling me the school nurse is concerned as many of the students come to her for basic over the counter medicines and feminine products. She's also a track coach and it was cool and wet yesterday, most of the students shwoed up without the provided hoodie/pants and said they didn't want to get them sweaty because then they couldn't wear them to school (implying they had no means to launder them except for at school) so her and the other coaches rounded up all of the stuff that had been left by previous years and she took it all home to wash and mend ripped pockets to bring back for those students. When kids are depending on the school for their meals and basic medical/hygiene needs... I can't see online classes becoming a thing for many of the schools in the country.
    - ryanmercer 7y ago
      You know, after this comment has percolated in my mind a bit it suddenly hit me that 'the stacks' in Ready Player One are much closer to reality than I'd ever expected. Honestly I had no idea this was the situation in high schools until we started dating. I would have been class of 2003 and sure we had some 'poor' students but we only had a handful of immigrant/refugee kids that you'd see getting the free food (we typed our code into a keypad that carried a balance or paid cash, you could always tell who was on a free lunch though because you were restricted to what you could take and everything was a la carte). Her current school also has some serious drug issues which was quite surprising to me. They had to expel some kids for vaping something other than nicotine in the past 2 months, turns out they were vaping something that contained fentanyl (how they got caught, they kept falling asleep in class and were hard to wake), they regularly have bring in drug dogs for both marijuana plant matter and thc vape cartridges, they recently had to remove two students for having sex on grounds and had to turn them over to the police because the male student was filming it with his phone and they were both underage, etc. It would be amazing if we could just let kids attend from home when sick, during adverse weather, during outbreaks (lice, COVID-19, chicken pox) but the stuff she keeps telling me... A school here has at least 2 students confirmed with COVID-19 (Avon, Indiana schools) that decided to close all of the schools this week and it's almost entirely a solid middle class school and even they've had trouble just this school year with some instances of drugs and a senior committed suicide around the holidays which sent a bunch of kids spiraling. I obviously don't know how things are in Europe but I think schools are between a rock and a hard place here in the United States. In many cases teachers may be the only positive attention kids get in person, and the only one that will notice when something is wrong (at her current school and her previous school cutting has been a very big issue). I'm rambling but the state of schools right now deeply concern me. This up and coming generation seems to have far more problems than mine did.
      - applecrazy 7y ago
        Holy crap. This made me recognize my privilege and the massive gap in facilities between schools. I never thought it was that bad in some American high schools. I went to a pretty high-performing school where the biggest problems were anxiety and depression, not (this still shocks me) actual hard drugs. Thank you for sharing your SO's experience. It's eye-opening to say the least.
  - solstice 7y ago
    That is true but also kind of my point: The epidemic Europe is facing could be the kind of event that triggers the necessary changes and investments for this to type of development to happen. Given Germany's federal-style education system I'm not holding my breath though...
    - pacamara619 7y ago
      You can call it what it is: a pandemic.