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The Daughters Bell have failed rural America. It's decades past time when FCC should stop holding back progress in these areas by doing the bidding of ATT/VZN.

The Daughters Bell have failed rural America. It's decades past time when FCC should stop holding back progress in these areas by doing the bidding of ATT/VZN. We are not served by spectrum monopoly regulatory regimes.

lotsofpulp 7y ago
The government and ultimately the voters who vote them in failed rural America. Fiber internet should be a utility. I still see voters opposing municipal fiber internet, for the sole reason that they are “anti government”.
- lonelappde 7y ago
  How much would it cost to run fiber to the rural home? 4G cellular seems more efficient and good enough if websites wouldn't be so wasteful.
pgrote 7y ago
The USA did this for electricity. It is mind boggling it hasn't been done for internet access. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act
- burlesona 7y ago
  The REA also basically killed the low-energy appliance and home electric generation industries (which were growing in the 1920s), and greatly accelerated suburban sprawl, all of which dramatically contribute to carbon emissions. There are always unintended consequences to the blunt instrument of massive programs. As an alternative, if the government reduced the monopoly power of the telcos and allowed things like municipal internet, that might be a good solution. I think we should seek first to remove the barriers and obstacles to progress before we use scorched earth to accomplish a goal.
jstewartmobile 7y ago
The daughters bell have unintentionally saved us from some of the coastie live-in-the-pod, eat-the-bugs, take-the-tranny-hormones psychological warfare that they wage upon us. Silver linings are everywhere. Long live the copy machine!
- ffdjjjffjj 7y ago
  Those “coasties” you seem to despise are the ones subsidizing your economically and environmentally unsustainable rural lifestyle.
  - jstewartmobile 7y ago
    Everything is connected. You can't do without them any better than they can do without you.
  - Mountain_Skies 7y ago
    Until urbanized areas have hydroponic highrises, they starve to death without rural areas. They also will have a difficult time accessing enough clean drinking water or finding a way to dispose of waste. Power generation will also be problematic. If the two areas went their own ways, which one would have the most difficulty surviving? That urban areas "subsidize" the areas holding many of the key resources for sustaining life should make you wonder how it is that the urban areas captured so much of the nation's economic balance sheet in the first place. But as a sibling comment stated, the two areas are intertwined and dependent on each other. Ultimately the whole ends up being larger than the parts.
  - dang 7y ago
    Please don't take HN threads further into regional flamewar. That's exactly the wrong direction to head. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- kcolford 7y ago
  I didn't realize this was sarcasm when I first read it and huge double take. I guess that doesn't necessarily need a /s... But damn
perl4ever 7y ago
I think the vast majority of areas "without internet access" are an artifact of modern software. I recently went over my "unlimited" cellular quota and was throttled to 128Kbps. I was amazed that I could literally not load the web page to upgrade my plan! 128K used to be high speed internet. Trying to upgrade everyone so they can pipe the same amount of garbage as everyone else seems like it will always be a receding goal. How about pass laws that say, not only must sites be accessible to the disabled, but they must also be accessible on low bandwidth connections?
- morpheuskafka 7y ago
  Sure, you just tell Zoom to make a video conference with 40 people in a class work over a 128K connection.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    What if you haven't got 40 people? There are towns I've been to with an entire population barely larger. They need fiber? Also, I just don't take seriously the difference between being connected to the internet and high quality videoconferencing for people who are extremely isolated. It's being connected at all that matters. You may be video conferencing lately, but I haven't even bothered to webex, just conference calls. And I don't myself see the worth compared to instant messaging.
  - ars 7y ago
    Does zoom really use more bandwidth the more people in the meeting? Seems to me with more people each image becomes smaller and the total bandwidth shouldn't change.

lotsofpulp 7y ago

The government and ultimately the voters who vote them in failed rural America. Fiber internet should be a utility. I still see voters opposing municipal fiber internet, for the sole reason that they are “anti government”.

lonelappde 7y ago
How much would it cost to run fiber to the rural home? 4G cellular seems more efficient and good enough if websites wouldn't be so wasteful.

pgrote 7y ago

The USA did this for electricity. It is mind boggling it hasn't been done for internet access. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act

burlesona 7y ago
The REA also basically killed the low-energy appliance and home electric generation industries (which were growing in the 1920s), and greatly accelerated suburban sprawl, all of which dramatically contribute to carbon emissions. There are always unintended consequences to the blunt instrument of massive programs. As an alternative, if the government reduced the monopoly power of the telcos and allowed things like municipal internet, that might be a good solution. I think we should seek first to remove the barriers and obstacles to progress before we use scorched earth to accomplish a goal.

jstewartmobile 7y ago

The daughters bell have unintentionally saved us from some of the coastie live-in-the-pod, eat-the-bugs, take-the-tranny-hormones psychological warfare that they wage upon us. Silver linings are everywhere. Long live the copy machine!

ffdjjjffjj 7y ago
Those “coasties” you seem to despise are the ones subsidizing your economically and environmentally unsustainable rural lifestyle.
- jstewartmobile 7y ago
  Everything is connected. You can't do without them any better than they can do without you.
- Mountain_Skies 7y ago
  Until urbanized areas have hydroponic highrises, they starve to death without rural areas. They also will have a difficult time accessing enough clean drinking water or finding a way to dispose of waste. Power generation will also be problematic. If the two areas went their own ways, which one would have the most difficulty surviving? That urban areas "subsidize" the areas holding many of the key resources for sustaining life should make you wonder how it is that the urban areas captured so much of the nation's economic balance sheet in the first place. But as a sibling comment stated, the two areas are intertwined and dependent on each other. Ultimately the whole ends up being larger than the parts.
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't take HN threads further into regional flamewar. That's exactly the wrong direction to head. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
kcolford 7y ago
I didn't realize this was sarcasm when I first read it and huge double take. I guess that doesn't necessarily need a /s... But damn

perl4ever 7y ago

I think the vast majority of areas "without internet access" are an artifact of modern software. I recently went over my "unlimited" cellular quota and was throttled to 128Kbps. I was amazed that I could literally not load the web page to upgrade my plan! 128K used to be high speed internet. Trying to upgrade everyone so they can pipe the same amount of garbage as everyone else seems like it will always be a receding goal. How about pass laws that say, not only must sites be accessible to the disabled, but they must also be accessible on low bandwidth connections?

morpheuskafka 7y ago
Sure, you just tell Zoom to make a video conference with 40 people in a class work over a 128K connection.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  What if you haven't got 40 people? There are towns I've been to with an entire population barely larger. They need fiber? Also, I just don't take seriously the difference between being connected to the internet and high quality videoconferencing for people who are extremely isolated. It's being connected at all that matters. You may be video conferencing lately, but I haven't even bothered to webex, just conference calls. And I don't myself see the worth compared to instant messaging.
- ars 7y ago
  Does zoom really use more bandwidth the more people in the meeting? Seems to me with more people each image becomes smaller and the total bandwidth shouldn't change.